Agent Starkling
by The Hope Lions
Summary: Sequel to Starkling Daisy Stark has always wanted to be a hero like her father, and as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D,she finally has the chance. But as Daisy attempts to find her place within the organization, she might just discover there are more than just heroes lying within S.H.I.E.L.D. (Updated daily)
1. Chapter 1

Short Author's note: I'm so, so, so, so grateful to everyone reading this and everyone who read Starkling. I never imagined such a wonderful response. Now here is the second fic. You'll get an update every day for the next 16 days as the fic is completed. Thank you so much, and review so I can thank you personally.

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Chapter 1

October 2012

Daisy gritted her teeth as she twisted the woman's hair into a painful knot. A sharp cry of pain echoed through the room as Daisy finished her work, putting the last pin in place. Smiling brightly, the S.H.I.E.L.D agent stepped away and admired her effort.

"You look beautiful," Daisy finally concluded, stepping forward to hug her mother. Pepper's dress was simple, but the price tag was high as one would expect for a Stark wedding. Off-white lace looped in intricate patterns down her arms, and the sides. A modest train hung off the back, pleated as to look like the crashing waves of the ocean. Tony had, of course, suggested something ridiculous- "red, or at least made of crystals" but since he'd let the girls plan everything, everything appeared modest. (Tony had, however, set a minimum they could spend, so some things cost far more than they appeared to, but Pepper didn't mind that.)

"Oh Daisy, you look wonderful as well," Pepper answered, pulling the young woman in for another hug. Daisy was the only bridesmaid, and, as such, had gotten to pick out the color of her dress. It was a deep red, a bit too short and a bit too tight, but it was the soft, deep neckline that would probably send her father to his grave. "You look like a real woman, and you are! When did you grow up?"

Daisy wasn't quite sure, but suspected it might have been when aliens invaded New York. Everything had been so different since that day, and whatever innocence Daisy had left disappeared into a wormhole with her father. Iron Man had returned, but not Daisy's childhood. Some things just didn't come back.

But some things did, and for that Daisy and Pepper were eternally grateful. Tony had come back out of that wormhole. Tony had returned from the brink of death, and now he was getting married. Finally he was accepting that the man who partied all night was gone, and that the new man, the husband and father, was far better.

"I don't think this would ever have happened if it wasn't for you," Pepper admitted, wrapping her arms around Daisy again. "You've made him so much better. I've never seen him so happy before."

Daisy smiled to herself, recalling that Pepper had promised the first time they met that Daisy would be good for Tony. No one expected the then-assistant to be so right, but she certainly had been. "I think a lot of that happiness is your fault. I don't even live at home anymore."

"Don't sell yourself short. You don't see the way his lips turn up whenever you call, or how he'll start talking to you and then cut short, forgetting you haven't been sitting on the couch doing homework for years. There will always be one person Tony loves more than me."

Daisy was torn between hugging Pepper and gently slapping the woman, but ended up just smiling. "He does really love you though. I mean, Tony Stark getting married. Who would have thought?"

"Not me," Pepper laughed, thinking back to the pig of a man she'd worked for in the beginning. Over time she'd come to see the goodness in Tony, and for that she'd stayed, but the real goodness needed a daughter and some terrorists to appear. Only then could he truly love. "Not me."

An alarm blared out on Daisy's phone, and Pepper bit her lip in an attempt to keep from laughing. "Is that "Star Spangled Man" from the old Captain America records?"

"Oh shut up," Daisy replied, cheeks red as Steve's shield. "I just thought it was funny. Steve just texted me that dad is in place and waiting for us."

Pepper's eyes grew wide, and she couldn't hold back the fits of laughter. Once she finally gained back control over her body, she continued to tease her daughter, "You've taught Captain America how to text?"

"For your information, Nat taught him to text, and he only has my number because you gave it to him," Daisy countered, smiling herself. The two locked eyes for a second, before both bursting out laughing at the image of a former Russian assassin teaching Captain America how to use text talk.

"Come on," Pepper urged, scooping up her bouquet and grabbing Daisy's arm. "Before I'm late to my own wedding."

They'd kept the event as small as possible, so there were only a few dozen chairs set up on the beach. Between then was an aisle, outlined by red sand and red daisies. (Daisy had objected to that, but her father insisted that since he didn't get to pick her name he could at least take advantage of it.)

As Daisy led the way down the aisle, she locked eyes with her father. It lasted only a second though, because his eyes moved towards Pepper and felt the need to wander no more. He stared at Pepper as if she was greater than everything he'd ever seen, as if she was more awe-inspiring than the universe itself. Daisy saw love, regret, forgiveness, and hope in his eyes as the procession made their way to the front, and the ceremony began.

Tony's fellow Avengers (the ones on Earth at least) had made a bet on whether or not Tony would be able to resist asking for the ceremony to be sped up. Much to the surprise of everyone but Bruce, Tony actually waited patiently through the proceedings, relishing in the joy of getting married as much as he'd relish in the joy of being married. Finally, however, it came time for them to recite the vows they'd written.

"Pepper," Tony whispered her name, forgetting everyone in attendance as he spoke only to her. "I don't deserve you. For years I have been doing stupid, reckless, thoughtless things, and through it all you haven't left my side. You became a mother to my daughter while I was just paying you to be my assistant. I don't deserve you, or the happiness you bring to me. But I want you. I want to be with you every day. I want for you to be my wife when you clean up my messes, because I love you, and I don't want you to ever forget that."

The bride had opted for water-proof makeup, and good thing too as tears bubbled over when she replied, "Tony for years I thought you were an ass." The gathered crowd let out a laugh, Daisy and Rhodey louder than anyone, but Pepper just continued. "But sometimes I would see you do something because it was the right thing to do. You attempted every day to save the world, long before you became Iron Man. You are and always have been a hero, and I love that. And I also love when you are an ass, because I love you, every part of you, and I will for the rest of my days."

Tony, never one to care much about rules, leaned forward to kiss Pepper that very moment. They broke off to finish the ceremony, and Tony for the first time looked towards his daughter and shrugged, causing her to laugh hysterically. By the time the ceremony finished and they kissed again everyone was laughing, and very much in the mood to move on to the party.

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Long Author's Note you don't have to read but I need to say:

Okay, so there was originally going to be a very different sequel, but then grossly-sweet said something that made no sense and my brain started doing things and we ended up with this story. Or well, stories. See I was going to post it as one longer story, but then today I was trying to write a plot summary and couldn't come up with something that was both accurate but didn't have spoilers. Then I realized the problem was that I was trying to summarize two very different stories. So I decided to separate them, which I hope you don't mind all that much. It just makes more sense in my head I guess, or maybe I'm just making excuses again. Who knows.

Also, I need to say again how incredibly flabbergasted I am with the response Starkling got. It's within the top it's the fourth most reviewed Avengers/ AOS crossover, and that doesn't even count the 186 comments on Archive of Our Own where the story is also posted. (We'd be the second most reviewed then). Plus, some 1400 people read the last chapter, which leads me to believe that some 1400 people read the whole first fic. If even a fraction of that reads these sequels I am a very lucky girl. I'm a very lucky girl no matter what really. Thank you. Enjoy


	2. Chapter 2

Wow. I literally had a freak attack when I woke up to 83 emails, and I've only gotten more throughout the day. Thank you so much to everyone who has followed, favorited, and reviewed. I can't express my love for you. I just hope it doesn't disappoint.

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Chapter 2

As she moved towards the tent and reception, Daisy felt a pair of arms wrap around her. She almost took the arms and flipped her attacker, but realized just in time that it was just her father, and he was actually hugging her. "I almost sent you crashing into the sand," Daisy laughed, turning to hug him properly. They did this so rarely; she was certainly going to take advantage of the opportunity.

Tony cast a sly glance at where the Avengers were mingling. "Natasha would have been proud," he declared, and Daisy sent a smile towards her mentor, but was pulled back by her father's continued speech. "You know I'm proud of you too."

Daisy raised an eyebrow, and studied his eyes. Was he being mind controlled or something? His eyes didn't look like they were under the control of an infinity stone, though. Nope, he just looked happy. "Who thought marriage would make you sentimental." Who thought anything could make Tony Stark sentimental.

"You looking so grown up makes me sentimental. What happened to my baby girl?"

"You never knew me when I was a baby," Daisy reminded, planting a kiss on her dad's cheek. "You got stuck with a snarky Stark teenager."

Tony much to his daughter's surprise, didn't laugh, but instead shook his head. "You were definitely a baby when we met."

Daisy wasn't going to fight him on it. Not only would it get her nowhere, as he never lost a fight, but it was kind of true. She had been so young. After everything that had happened… maybe she had been just a baby. Besides, she was so proud of him. He'd actually married Pepper. He had actually done it. It was a good day.

"Agent Stark?" Daisy turned to see a middle aged man speaking to her as Tony went to greet the other guests. The man had short, graying hair, and a clean three-piece suit on which reminded Daisy of a congressman, but she knew none of those had been invited. She had, after all, been the one saddled with the duty of sending out the invitations. (Thor was, obviously, the most difficult to get in contact with. She had managed it though, after reading far too many Norse legends. Of course, the alien hadn't been able to come, with no bi-frost the journey was difficult, but at least she'd tried. And his human friends, Jane, Darcy, and Eric made it at least.)

"I'm Alexander Pierce," the man's introduction shocked Daisy from her thoughts. She knew who this man was, even if he felt the need to finish the introduction. "I'm the Secretary of the World Security Council."

Daisy nodded, a bit star struck. She often found it off how she could be so completely awed when meeting someone big in S.H.I.E.L.D, and yet so casual around Iron Man and all the Avengers. Daisy Stark's life was undoubtedly odd, though, so really she didn't think all that much about it. "It's an honor to meet you Secretary Pierce. I'm glad you could come."

"I'm glad for that," he answered with a bright smile. "I was worried when I didn't get an invitation. But I figured if Fury was welcome so was I."

Well Fury actually knew the couple getting married, but this man was Daisy's boss on so many levels, so it wasn't like she could tell him he wasn't actually welcome. "I never sent the invitation because I figured you wouldn't have time. Of course you're welcome."

"Rumor is you did a lot of planning. I'm surprised you had time with the work you've been doing with S.H.I.E.L.D. The encryptions on the Nepal case were your work I hear."

Daisy flushed red at the obvious compliment. It really had been a piece of cake to crack those encryptions and reveal the location of a few enhanced drug lords. Just because no one else had been able to do it didn't make it hard, not for Daisy at least. "Hey, if it's not in Russian I can hack it."

"Well we're grateful for it," Pierce replied, shocking Daisy with his sincerity. He seemed to legitimately appreciate the work she did for S.H.I.E.L.D, which was more than she could say for anyone else. Most people were convinced she only worked for them because of the Stark name, and those who knew her skills didn't seem to care enough to give her real assignments. Apparently getting a B+ in an Operations class run by Natasha Romanoff wasn't enough to secure Daisy a field assignment. Nope, she was just another Coms operative typing away on her computer all day, bored out of her mind, but unable to bring herself to quit because, well, there really weren't any more interesting options. Her father had let her into the Iron Man suit once for her eighteen birthday, and didn't seem to have any plans on repeating the event. She wasn't super and so Daisy Stark was stuck behind a computer. Everyone claimed her work made a difference, and on a good day, on a really good day, Daisy could even believe them.

"You know, though, I feel like you're talent is being underutilized on Fury's helicarrier." Daisy perked up at the words. Secretary Pierce thought she was being underutilized? Hell yes she was being underutilized! "How would you feel about me putting in a request for your transfer to the Triskelion?"

Daisy stared at him, trying to find the deception in his words. Surely he was just kidding. The Triskelion was the hub of S.H.I.E.L.D (despite there being another base literally named the Hub). Every important mission was dealt with by the Triskelion agents, and the computer lab was said to put Stark Industries to shame. Only the best of the best were stationed there, and Secretary Pierce himself wanted to add Daisy to that list? "I… I would be honored! Thank you so much!"

"Anything for a lovely, bright young lady like yourself," he smiled before nodding and leaving Daisy stewing. She was being transferred to the Triskelion! Finally her work might seem to have meaning. There had to be something good, something important to what S.H.I.E.L.D did. Phil Coulson would not have gone to his death for an unimportant agency. At the Triskelion Daisy would finally get the chance to see the wonderful organization Coulson felt was worth dying for. Daisy was sure of it.

As if she hadn't already been floating on a cloud from the wedding, Daisy drifted into the reception overjoyed. Finally! Finally she would get to see the meaning behind her work! Everything was finally falling into place.

"You look well."

Daisy spun to see one Captain America appraising her with his eyes. He looked nice out of his uniform. His suit-jacket hung over his arm, too heavy for the warm fall night, and his red tie had been loosed just enough for him to look comfortable. He looked like he belonged there, instead of back in Nazi Germany, where he probably still felt most at home.

Daisy hadn't seen him in the months since New York, but looking upon him now she remembered why. Steve was stationed at the Triskelion. She was being transferred to the Triskelion. Suddenly the best news of her career was suddenly better. "You look nice as well," Daisy chuckled back, before realizing that she was holding an arm out, and vaguely motioning to his chest as if saying he looked nice because he was chiseled. (Well it was true, but certainly not what she'd been going for. Woops.)

Steve didn't seem to mind all that much, though. He just laughed, and the room lit up. Daisy suddenly decided he had a wonderful laugh, one of the greatest she'd ever heard. "Would you care to join me for a dance?"

Daisy looked around, and noticed that no one else was really dancing. She wasn't surprised; none of those here were really the dancing type. But Steve was a man of the forties, where the only type of night out was one that involved dancing. Of course he'd want to dance, and Daisy couldn't help but smile because he wanted to dance with her. "We had a dancing class at the Academy you know, but I bet you've had a lot of practice."

"I never went dancing much," Steve admitted, sounding sad even as he led Daisy onto the dance floor. She felt his hand clench the small of her back, and found herself staring up into his deep blue eyes. They seemed to go on farther than the hole to space had, and they certainly held more stars.

"Don't tell me all those stories about swing dancing soldiers were a lie," Daisy teased, her breath making it hard to get the words out. She was dancing with Captain America; of course she was nervous! _You're not dancing with Captain America, Daisy_ , a part of her whispered. _You're dancing with Steve Rodgers._

"Not a lie," Steve promised, swinging her out to prove his point. Daisy let out a laugh as she awkwardly rolled back in towards him, and their eyes met once more. "Bucky… he always went dancing, but I… I was waiting for the right partner."

Daisy had to lean her head back to really look at him. He looked so sad, and, despite not being sure she wanted to know the answer, she asked, "Did you ever find her?"

"Yes," he admitted, his eyes seventy years away. "But then it turned out that the timing wasn't right, and I had to start looking all over again."

Daisy knew that would be the answer. She was, after all, a Captain America nut. You couldn't read all the stories and not know about Peggy Carter, and yet she'd asked, because she couldn't help herself. "I'm sorry."

Steve swung her out a little bit, making it easier for them to lock onto each other, feeding off the pain in the other's eyes. "I'm not. I was, at first, but… I have to believe everything happens for a reason. Maybe I had to lose Peggy to meet someone else. Someone who I'd be a bit too old for otherwise."

They weren't dancing anymore. Daisy just stood there in Steve's arms, lost in him. "Secretary Pierce just offered me a job at the Triskelion," she blurted out, unsure what else to say. He had to know. With the way he was speaking Steve had to know that they'd soon both be in D.C. She had to let him know.

Steve seemed to like that, "Maybe when you get to D.C. I can show you around, and maybe go dancing again. I think I like you as a partner." Daisy didn't think; at his words she stood on her tip toes and kissed him. It was short and sweet, but the pain in Steve's eyes were replaced with light by the end. "You know back in my day that would make you my girl."

Daisy giggled at the dated term, "I don't think I'd mind the forties all that much if that could be the case. But I think the modern term you're looking for is girlfriend."

"Daisy Stark, my girlfriend," Steve chuckled, brushing a hair out of her face before starting to dance again. "I could get used to that."

"Yeah, I think I could too."


	3. Chapter 3

Just thank you

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Chapter 3

Three days later, Daisy was met at the airport by Steve. She couldn't help the flutter in her chest upon seeing him, there, waiting for her. _My boyfriend._

Daisy had never had a boyfriend before, and that really bothered her. She was twenty-years old and had never had a boyfriend- pitiful. But now she finally had one, and man was he something. Besides being a literal superhero (which wasn't all that big a deal considering Daisy's dad was one as well) he was, well, Steve Rodgers. The mannerisms of the forties decked out with a quaint smile. Steve was spectacular even before he put on the suit, and well, the skin-tight red, white and blue suit just made things a little bit better.

"Welcome to D.C.," he greeted, taking Daisy's bags for her. She let him, not because she couldn't carry them, but because why not let him? Steve was trying to be sweet, and he certainly was.

"Thanks for meeting me," Daisy answered, smiling brightly. She liked Steve. A lot. For understandable reasons too. "I haven't been here in years. My dad got called to testify before congress a few years ago, but that wasn't exactly a sight-seeing trip. They were trying to take his suit away."

Steve looked surprised, "Why would they do that? It's his own private property. What right does the government have to that?"

For the first time it crossed Daisy's mind that perhaps Captain America wasn't all that up to date on American politics. After all, the massive government control really began with the cold war, and Steve was a bit too cold during that war too notice. "They saw it as a weapon and didn't want it in private hands. In the end Rhodey just ended up with another suit and that placated them enough to let it drop. I lot of people don't like the idea of super-anything."

Steve nodded, understanding that a bit. In his time people had been so desperate to win the war that they were thrilled to have a super-human soldier fighting the Nazis. Since New York, however, Steve had discovered everyone wasn't as thrilled with the idea. Even with his limited ability to use the internet, he had come across enough comments by the Watchdogs to know something was up. "People fear what they don't understand."

"People want what they can't have," Daisy countered, thinking of her own experience. She'd desperately wanted an Iron Girl suit, and had been pretty resentful when her dad wouldn't let her build one. "And jealousy makes people do stupid things."

Steve nodded again, but didn't say anything. Instead, he just led Daisy out to the parking lot, where he figured out a big problem. "Oh crap," he muttered, looking at his motorbike. He hadn't thought twice on not having a real car; his bike fit two. It did not, however, fit two people and all of Daisy's luggage.

Daisy laughed at his predicament. "It's alright. I'll just call a taxi and meet you at my apartment. Well, actually, it's just the apartment a few doors down from yours. My dad told me you lived there, and thought I would be safer down the hall from an Avenger so…"

"And he was okay with you living only a few doors down from your boyfriend?"

She looked down at that, and clicked her feet together just a bit. When Daisy finally looked up to answer, her lip was red from where she'd been biting it. "Well… he doesn't exactly know… I mean I was going to tell him, but then I remembered you do like Avengers training sessions on the third Tuesday of every month, and next week is the third Tuesday, and I figured that wouldn't be enough time for me to convince him not to kill you…"

Steve was caught between amusement and horror. Daisy's father didn't know they were a couple. Daisy's father, Steve's teammate, Steve's teammate with a suit that kills people, didn't know they were dating. "So now he can just be more angry when he finds out from someone else?"

"I promise I'll tell him! Just not yet. He's happy with Pepper and… and I just don't think he's ready to know yet." More like she wasn't ready to tell him yet. Steve was older than her, quite a bit even if you did discount the seventy years in ice. And, well, Tony could be overprotective. Daisy didn't want to complicate things among the Avengers, that was all. Not until she had to. After all, she didn't have a clue where this thing with Steve was going to go. No need to make a big deal out of it until there was something to be said, even if, so far, Steve was perfect.

Steve just shook his head, certain that things had not been so complicated in 1942. "Okay, but I'm not letting you take a taxi alone. Those men drive like madmen. I'll just come back for my bike later."

"How are you going to get here to pick up your bike? They're on opposite sides of the city."

"I'll run," Steve replied simply, and Daisy was reminded, yet again, that he was literally a superhero. She was in great shape as an agent, but even she couldn't just casually run sixty miles.

They took a cab towards the apartment, and Steve helped Daisy unpack. They chatted as they did, about everything and nothing. Daisy knew a lot about Steve's past; she'd been obsessed with him as a kid. It was different though, hearing about a different time from someone who literally felt like it was only a few months ago. To Steve World War II only ended back in May, and then two days later aliens invaded. His world was totally different from that of Daisy. It wasn't bad though, or awkward, and both of them found enjoyment from Daisy's attempts to explain history.

"So you would just come home from school and talk to someone living in France about a book written in England?" Steve asked and Daisy nodded. "Wow."

It was pretty spectacular, and yet she hadn't thought so in years. That was something else Daisy liked about Steve- he gave her a new perspective on what to her was just another mundane thing.

They spent all afternoon together, and it was only after Chinese-take-out-dinner that Steve decided that Daisy's apartment looked friendly enough to sleep in and went to head back to his own. She walked him to the door, and, before his conservative ways could kick in, kissed him goodbye. It wasn't a particularly long kiss, but it was good, and safe. "Goodnight Daisy."

"Goodnight Steve," she called, as he made his way down the hall. Daisy watched him go, and was about to go back inside when she caught sight of a familiar face down the hall.

She disappeared quickly into an apartment, laundry in hand, but Daisy was sure of whom it had been: Agent 13- one of her instructors at the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy. Why she was living across the hall from Steve, however, Daisy had no clue, and she couldn't just go and ask. She'd learned years ago about not blowing someone's cover when you find them in the field, even if you're off duty. She'd learned that lesson when Fitzsimmons were spending Christmas break working for her dad. Still, Daisy couldn't help but wonder why Agent 13 was there, spying on Captain America himself.


	4. Chapter 4

My sincerest apologizes. I was looking at colleges and didn't end up having internet like I expected to. Again, sorry, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

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Chapter 4

Steve offered, but Daisy refused to ride with him to the Triskelion. Last thing she needed was to be the girl who got the job not only because her dad was Iron Man, but because her boyfriend was Captain America. Daisy had enough issues as it was.

The Communications Lab at the Triskelion wasn't very different from the one on the helicarrier, and yet infinitely more complex. All those programs she'd had to install on the helicarrier after finding it lacking were already there, waiting for her. Plus, the files she was sent on her very first day were actually difficult, well they took more than 5 minutes to crack the encryption on at least.

Sure, it wasn't really all that more interesting, and Daisy was still sitting behind a screen going a little bit nutty, but it was better than being on the helicarrier. On the helicarrier she didn't get Steve showing up at lunch. Granted, she also didn't get Natasha showing up on the helicarrier, but the bad didn't necessarily outweigh the good.

"Are you and Steve sleeping together?"

Daisy's mouth literally dropped as she turned to see Natasha standing in the back of her cubicle. She wasn't surprised by her mentor's sudden arrival, or that she'd had no clue Nat was there. She was surprised that even Natasha didn't have more tact than to come out and say it. "What? No! Why would you even…"

"I saw you two at the wedding," Natasha gave Daisy a pointed, disappointed look that said 'you have to hide a lot better to fool me'. "And then he stays and eats lunch in the cafeteria for the first time ever. Are you sleeping with him?"

Daisy's face was bright red, and she really wished there weren't dozens of spies around who were, undoubtedly, listening in. "No! It's not like that at all. He's I mean he's not that type of guy. They didn't do that in the forties."

"I'm pretty sure people were born in the forties so someone was doing that."

Natasha could take Daisy down in a split second, but the girl imagined what it would feel like to slap the senior spy for that comment. "You know what I mean. We literally have had one date, and that was just him helping me unload boxes. But yeah, I like him, and he's my boyfriend. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Yes," Natasha pointed out, thinking of all the horrible complications that would surely arise from this little entanglement. Yet she liked Daisy, maybe even loved the girl. Daisy had given up her teenage years to study in an attempt to be great like her father. She didn't deserve to give up her twenties because S.H.I.E.L.D sucked everything out of you. Daisy deserved a little bit of happiness. "Just be careful, okay, and tell your father, before someone else does."

Nat left, and Daisy didn't even bother wondering how she'd known that Tony was unaware. Natasha Romanoff knew everything. Speaking of which… "Natasha," Daisy called after her mentor. "Do you know why a S.H.I.E.L.D agent is living across the hall from Steve?"

The look in Natasha's eye didn't say anything, but Daisy couldn't shake the feeling that the answer was no, even after Natasha said, "That's not your clearance level Daisy, I'm sorry. Don't worry about it, okay, and don't mention it to Steve. I'm sure he's there for a good reason."

"She," Daisy replied.

Natasha's still didn't show any emotion, but mentally she was biting her lip. Of course it was a she. "Don't worry about it, okay? Now get to work. You can't be slacking on your first day."

Daisy did go back to work, but the question continued to nag at her. Why would a S.H.I.E.L.D agent be spying on Steve? And why Agent 13? She was only a few years older than Daisy and had only two years in the field. Surely they would have wanted someone more experienced to tail an Avenger? Why her?

Maybe it wasn't her business or clearance level, but she was Daisy Stark. She knew that keeping some information under wraps protected people, and that other information needed to be out there. She also knew S.H.I.E.L.D forgot the second part of that sometimes in their desperate mission to save the world. So what harm could there be in Daisy looking at a another junior agent's file, just to figure out why she was tailing Steve? Daisy had, after all, been given access to all S.H.I.E.L.D files when she re-did their security. It's not really hacking when you created the program in the first place.

Yeah, it was, but Daisy didn't want to admit that, not as she cast a glance over her shoulder and easily worked around her own security protocols to pull up the file.

Once she did, Daisy understood, and didn't have to read any further. The first line said it all **Name: Sharon Carter (Agent 13)**

 _"_ _Move on while you can, Carter is coming to meet us and she would not be as approving of you being out after curfew as we are."_ It had been years since Daisy and Fitzsimmons broke into the Operations Academy and got that little warning. Daisy hadn't thought much of the comment at the time, or of why Agent 13 got in trouble for an event she wasn't even around for, but now it made sense. That 'Carter' coming to meet them was Sharon Carter, Agent 13, Peggy Carter's granddaughter. That was why they had her be the one to tail Steve. Should Steve find out her identity he would trust her, because she was Peggy's granddaughter. She was as close to Peggy as he could get, with the woman's mind long gone.

Daisy felt a twinge of jealousy, which she knew was stupid. Sharon hadn't actually made any moved towards Steve. He didn't even seem to really know she existed. And yet Sharon had been there, probably since Steve woke up from the ice. _He met you first Daisy. You'll always be the first person he met in this time._

Yeah, she was the first person he met, and she'd been the one selected because her grandfather was friends with Steve. Daisy was half surprised they hadn't called Sharon in for that one too; Steve was closer to Peggy than Howard.

 _Now you're being irrational Daisy. It's not some sort of conspiracy to set Steve up with the granddaughter of his first love. S.H.I.E.L.D is just trying to surround him with people he can trust._

So why did that make Daisy trust S.H.I.E.L.D less?

* * *

Author's note: I am aware that in the comics Sharon is Peggy's niece, but in Agent Carter Peggy's brother, Michael, died and she did not appear to have any other siblings so… well I've had to change things a bit because I don't know what they're gonna do for the canon explanation yet.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

When Daisy got back to her apartment, she immediately called up her dad just to see how he was doing. She hadn't spoken to him since the night of his wedding, when he whooshed Pepper away to Tahiti, and, to be perfectly honest, she missed him. On crazy days Daisy always missed her dad.

It wasn't her dad who answered though, which really wasn't all that bad a thing. "Hey Daisy, how's DC?" Pepper questioned, answering Tony's phone like it was no big deal. (And really it wasn't. She'd been answering his calls for decades before she was even his wife.)

"It's nice. How's Tahiti?"

"Great," Pepper replied cheerfully. "You should go some time. Maybe take Steve with you."

Daisy wanted to hit her head on a wall. Wow. She was a really, really, really bad spy. "By God tell me dad doesn't know."

"Nope, but he's the only one," Pepper's voice sounded mischievous, much more like the older sister than a mother. "Maria Hill called wanting to know if she should prepare a coffin for Steve or for you."

This time Daisy literally did hit her head on a wall. "I'll tell him, I will. Just after I've disabled all his suits and locked him in a nuclear bunker."

Pepper laughed, and sounded more like a mom when she spoke again, "Really Daisy, I'm happy for you. He's a good guy, but even good guys can hurt you, okay? So just be careful and use protecti…"

"Okay you can stop talking now," Daisy interrupted glad Pepper couldn't see her face. "I really hope dad isn't standing there."

"Don't worry, he's just coming in now," Pepper assured, before yelling away from the phone, "Tony, Daisy's on the line."

There was the sound of shuffling, and perhaps some kissing, before Tony's voice rang, "Hey kid. How is the new apartment?"

"It's good," Daisy promised, looking around what she was slowly going to make into a home. "At least no one has yet to have a brawl in it and completely destroy everything…"

Daisy could feel him wanting to say that was only one time, but they both knew it wasn't true. It seemed everywhere Tony went there was trouble, and so Daisy had seen a fair bit of trouble as well. "Let's hope it stays that way."

"Yeah…" As much as Daisy missed her father, their conversations tended to end up like this, with one of them unsure what to say, and the other panicking to hang up. "I'll let you and Pepper get on with your day. It's kinda late here."

Tony knew it was only a 16 hour difference, and so it couldn't be past nine, but he still just answered, "Night", and hung up. Daisy didn't really mind the awkwardness; she was used to it. That had been their relationship for a long time. It wasn't that they were awkward around each other, but that they were both awkward in general, and struggled to keep up a meaningful conversation with anyone, especially not someone who struggled with the same. It was okay though. That was just Daisy's relationship with her father, and she liked her relationship with her father.

The next day, when Daisy got to the Triskelion, she had a message that she was wanted by Secretary Pierce. Shocked and scared, Daisy made her way towards the elevator, certain he knew she'd looked at Sharon's file. Perhaps she didn't know the man well, but Daisy could practically hear his rant. "I go and help you move up, and this is how you repay me- with treason." And then they'd drag her away and lock her up; she just knew it.

Secretary Pierce was smiling at his desk when Daisy arrived, and motioned for the girl to sit. "Try a cannoli," he offered her, holding out a tray of the desserts. Daisy shook her head, confused, but suspecting that those charged with high-treason aren't usually given dessert first. Then again, this was S.H.I.E.L.D. For all Daisy knew the treats were actually laced with truth serum or something. (Fitz had once told her that Jemma was working on something like that. Daisy wouldn't have been surprised if her friend had succeeded in the years since.)

"You know I wasn't aware that you had designed our current security system until yesterday," Pierce finally admitted, after drawing out the silence by eating a cannoli. "But after I saw what you did with Miss Carter's file I did some research. That's quite impressive you know."

Perhaps her father had never been big on manners, but the nuns of St. Agnes were. "Thank you."

"You know Daisy, I wasn't perfectly honest when we first met," he admitted, lifting his eyes up towards her slightly to make him look extra mysterious. And yet, as ridiculous as it sounds, it worked. Daisy found herself hanging onto his every word. "See I'd heard a bit about you, but I really wanted you to move to D.C. because I think you and I share a vision. We can both see what no one else around here does."

Daisy had met supervillains before, and so she was hesitant in her response, "What is this we see?"

"That S.H.I.E.L.D isn't perfect." Okay, Daisy could agree with that. This was, after all, the organization that agreed to send an eighteen-year-old girl on the run for days as a training exercise. "That perhaps there are games Fury is playing that we don't know all the rules of. You like to know the rules, or you wouldn't have cared why there was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent living across from Captain Rodgers."

Daisy was well, well aware of Fury's games. She'd been manipulated into meeting all the Avengers, and in the end she'd probably be what stopped them from fighting each other in a civil war. Fury loved games, and saw everyone as pieces. Daisy saw them as people, people who often didn't realize they weren't making up the rules. "I think that S.H.I.E.L.D needs to be more transparent, especially with its own agents. Within limits of course, like we shouldn't let the Rising Tide have free reign of our servers."

"You're a smart girl," Pierce assured with a nod. "I think you'd be wise to accept that you're beyond security clearances and read up on what S.H.I.E.L.D's really up to. Things are going to start changing around here Daisy, two years from now and you might just find yourself on the top should you have the courage to really get an understanding of all of S.H.I.E.L.D. You understand?"

Daisy did. Daisy certainly understood. She understood that the Secretary of the World Security Council just gave her permission to read any and all S.H.I.E.L.D files, so that she'd be ready for her chance, the chance that was right around the corner. She understood that he was doing this for her, because in his mind they were alike. And most importantly, Daisy understood that he was someone who believed in her fully, and didn't want to hold her back for safety's sake. She understood that that was exactly what she needed.

"Thank you Secretary Pierce. I understand completely."

"That's my girl, now get back to work. And tell that boyfriend of yours I'm a huge fan of the way he destroyed Hydra so completely," Pierce replied, standing to open the door. "I'll see you soon Daisy, and we can discuss what you've done."

Daisy nodded, and returned to her pitiful work with a feeling of elation. She'd been right about the answers being at the Triskelion. Finally she was going to make a difference. Finally she was going to get her chance to be the hero. And all she had to do was read.

"Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to go see a movie tonight," Steve asked her a few hours later. "I still can't get over them being in color."

And so that's how Daisy's life became what it was for the next month. By day she worked for S.H.I.E.L.D, during the evenings she fell for Steve, and at night she combed through the files of S.H.I.E.L.D, learning everything she possibly could, and more than she ever imagined.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

From the moment Daisy woke up, she knew it was not going to be a fun day. Simply put- her dad was coming to the Avengers training session, and had no idea about Steve. And to make it even worse for Daisy, Steve had no idea that Tony had no idea about their relationship. As Daisy had told Clint, who just found the whole situation amusing, "I didn't lie to Steve, I only led him to believe I'd told my dad. It's his own damn fault for making assumptions."

Yeah, Daisy knew that wasn't going to go over well, which basically left her with two options- not tell her dad the truth and let Steve break up with her, or tell Tony the truth and let him kill Steve. To Daisy, as sad as it was, it was an easy decision. No boyfriend at all was better than a dead boyfriend.

It still kinda sucked though, because Daisy really, really, really liked Steve. Hell, she might have fallen in love with Steve, and now it was all gonna fall apart, because of her dad. Daisy loved her dad more than she loved Steve, it's true, but she just wished she didn't have to pick. Sometimes life would be so much easier if everyone Daisy knew wasn't a superhero.

"Hey," Steve whispered in Daisy's ear, surprising her from behind as she typed away and tried to ignore her problems. "You're coming with me to go meet your dad right?"

Daisy sighed, finished her work, and stood. Looking into Steve's eyes her resolve wavered, and Daisy just smiled. She really, really, really liked Steve. "Yeah, just like let's be chill about us okay? I don't want him to feel like we're throwing it on him so just… just let him bring it up, okay?"

Natasha, who was falling into step behind them, had a look of amusement on her face, but Steve didn't notice anything. He just smiled back and nodded, "Certainly. But I wanted to invite him to have dinner with us tonight…"

"He probably wants to get right back to Malibu," Daisy suggested, hoping that her plan would work and she'd buy herself another month to figure out how to stop her dad from freaking. "Pepper and all…"

Steve seemed disappointed, which made Daisy feel slightly bad. Then she remembered that she was most likely saving his life, and just nodded. "Some other time I'm sure. Maybe you can come to my place for Christmas, so long as there are no terrorists or something that needs to be dealt with…" (Only after she said it did Daisy get the vivid mental image of her creating a terrorist to deal with in an attempt to delay even longer.)

"Oh, right," Steve agreed, forcing a smile on his face. (Daisy knew it was forced, because his upper lip curled inwards only when his smile was fake.) "I won't bother him. I'll even partner with Clint. Wouldn't want to hurt him and make him hate me."

Daisy laughed, and received an indignant look from Steve. "Look it's not that I don't think you could hurt him or… well I guess yeah, actually I don't think you can hurt him. Even you can't punch through solid metal."

"Someday I'll be your favorite superhero," Steve decided pushing open the gym doors so hard they slammed back into the walls. It was very obvious that he was trying to impress her, but it looked pretty ridiculous when the door handles left a dent in the wall behind them.

"Nice try ya dinosaur," Natasha laughed, passing by Steve and patting him on the back. "But don't fool yourself. The kid's always gonna go for her dad. He's her dad."

"Who's a dad?" Tony asked, strolling in behind them suit on accept for the face mask. "Are you a dad Steve? Congratulations."

Daisy rolled her eyes, and smacked her dad's breastplate. "Funny, a dad joke."

"I'm full of those," Tony promised, planting a quick kiss on his daughter's temple. "And you well know it."

Yeah, she did.

"Hey Daisy," Clint greeted, from his nest in the rafters.

"Hey Hawkguy," Daisy called up as he rappelled down. "How's the weather up there?"

Natasha snorted a laugh, more over the way Clint had scrunched his face together than Daisy's poor jokes. "Maria can't come, so we're out a referee. You want to stay Daisy?"

Oh. Daisy knew for sure this was going to be interesting.

Steve kept his promise and worked with Clint, leaving Nat to cream Tony. Daisy got great amusement from watching her father try using brute force against her again and again while receiving the same results. "They say insanity is doing the same thing again and again while expecting different results," Daisy teased her dad after Natasha found the little emergency hatch that forced the suit open. "Maybe you should try being subtle."

"When am I ever subtle?"

Daisy knew the answer was never, but just shrugged it off and moved towards where Steve and Clint were sparing. They were more evenly matched, Steve's super strength countered by Clint's years of training and semi-explosive arrows. He was probably one of the few people ever to effectively use a bow in short-range combat, but he certainly managed it well.

Still, it looked like Captain America would be taking the round until Daisy stepped in his line of sight. The sight of his girlfriend made Steve falter for just long enough that Clint managed to get a solid blow in, knocking Steve onto his ass and ending the fight.

"Note to self- Captain America's weak spot is his girlfriend. Definitely going to exploit that when I become a supervillain," Clint announced a bit too loudly as he helped Steve up. Daisy wanted to throw herself against the wall, but Natasha just let out a billowing 'I told you so' laugh.

Tony abandoned his own fight and crossed towards where Daisy stood. He looked menacing in his suit as his eyes flared blue. He certainly didn't look like the warm dad Daisy knew he could be. "I'm sorry, but what girlfriend?"

Steve finally caught onto what everyone else knew, and gave Daisy a disappointed look. "You promised you'd tell him. I thought you had!"

"I'm sorry, tell me what?"

Daisy was caught between running away and falling on the floor to beg forgiveness. Eventually, however, she decided to pull on her big-girl panties, and wrapped her arm around Steve's waist. (He didn't push her away, which gave Daisy the confidence she needed to say the words.) "Steve is my boyfriend."

Tony finally lifted his mask, and the look on his face was filled with more surprise than when he had discovered his long-lost daughter. "I'm sorry Daisy. I think J.A.R.V.I.S's auditory systems are down because I just heard the word boyfriend."

"They're not broken. Steve and I are a couple. He's nice, and a gentleman and we've been seeing each other."

Tony stared at Daisy, not seeing her at all. "No. You're way too young for a boyfriend."

Well, he hadn't attacked Steve at least, but this flat-out denial was just as bad. "Dad, I'm 20. You were you were younger than that when I was born."

"Doesn't matter, I was an idiot, you're not. I like the good Captain, but you're too young to be having a boyfriend!"

"Well I'm sorry because I have a boyfriend!"

Tony just stared at her, unable to reconcile this young woman with the little girl who'd walked into that court house. "Tell me you're not pregnant. Because I've had enough pregnancies."

Daisy was about to get indignant, and start yelling, when she realized that the best thing she could do was direct the conversation onto something else. "Is Pepper pregnant?"

Tony knew exactly what she was doing, but considering he really didn't want to carry on this line of conversation he let her do it. "Yeah, she told me last night. Oh I pray to God your little sibling is easier than you."

"With Pepper's genes? No way," Daisy promised hugging her father a bright smile on her face. Steve was still alive. Her dad had more of less accepted things. And Pepper was pregnant. Daisy was going to have a little brother or sister.

Okay, maybe the day turned out far better than Daisy had expected it to.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

It had become Daisy's habit to pick a random file, and then read all the ones linked to it before bed. Yet, sometimes, something would catch her eye and the random file wasn't exactly random. When Daisy saw the name Camp Lehigh, she couldn't help but be curious. Steve had told her a thing of two about his training, but Daisy wanted to know how S.H.I.E.L.D saw it. The number one thing Daisy had discovered over the past few weeks of reading was that S.H.I.E.L.D never saw events the way the rest of the world did.

The file spoke about the camps early work as an SSR training Camp but much to Daisy's surprise the camp didn't end with the war. It was repurposed, and, in the end, became the "final resting place of Arnim Zola."

There was a link to Zola's file, and Daisy followed it, scanning towards the end, trying to figure out why Hydra's head scientist was buried at a SSR, then S.H.I.E.L.D facility.

She found her answer the under the heading "Collaboration with S.H.I.E.L.D." Apparently someone considered him rehabilitated and allowed him to work on something called Project Insight.

Of course, Daisy had to click on that link, and so everything fell apart.

Normally Daisy would head into the Triskelion with Steve, but she was gone before he woke up. If she saw him Daisy knew she would burst out the truth. She couldn't do that to him not when she didn't know who was involved. Pierce would know what to do. The Secretary of the World Security Council would know how to stop Hydra.

Daisy wasn't a naturally paranoid person, but she had been trained by Natasha. All night her mind had been turning over the possibility that Hydra wasn't destroyed, not fully. Project Insight was terrifying, a fleet designed to wipe out any possible threat, based on an algorism designed by a Nazi. That just seemed like a really, really, really terrible idea to Daisy. No one, not even S.H.I.E.L.D, should have that kind of power. S.H.I.E.L.D wouldn't want that kind of power so long as S.H.I.E.L.D was just S.H.I.E.L.D. There had to be something else. There had to be Hydra.

But who? Who around Daisy was secretly a Nazi? She trusted Fury, Maria, Clint, Nat, Steve, Pierce, her dad but besides that? There were hundreds of S.H.I.E.L.D agents at the Triskelion. Any one of them could be Hydra, and they surely wouldn't take well to the Starkling knowing their plan. Daisy would go right to the Avengers with she knew, but only once she had a clue how to figure out who was Hydra and who wasn't. That was why she needed Pierce.

Daisy found her way up to his office just as the sun was coming up. The whole building was empty except for a few night guards, but she knew Pierce would be there. He always would send Daisy emails first thing in the morning, with vague questions about how her exploration is going. He would be in his office, and so Daisy went there before the sun was up, before any traitors could be there as well.

"Daisy," Pierce greeted, sounding legitimately surprised by her visit. Daisy had figured he was keeping up with the files she'd accessed, but apparently he didn't know. "What can I do for you?"

She looked around, trying to find any signs of cameras or bugs. If she was an evil Nazi she'd certainly be watching the World Security Council, make sure they didn't know. Pierce must have realized what she was doing, because he spoke. "My office is secure, I assure you. What is on your mind?"

He motioned for Daisy to sit, but she was too anxious too. How could she just sit down and chat when she knew what she did? "I was reading something last night…" Daisy began, a bit in her stomach. Was she wrong to trust Pierce? He'd done good by her, promised her a lot in the future, but did Daisy really know him. If anyone could be Hydra… No. No. Secretary Pierce couldn't be Hydra. If he was then there was no S.H.I.E.L.D at all.

"Secretary Pierce I think S.H.I.E.L.D has been compromised by Hydra."

Pierce had been smiling, but as Daisy finally stood still to make her confession, his face grew dim. "You found Project Insight."

Daisy's heart pounded against her chest-thud, thud, thud. No! No! No! No! "You know." There was no question in her words when Daisy got the words out, just an acceptance of the horrible truth. "You know about Zola and Insight you… You're Hydra!"

Pierce stood, pressing a button on his desk to lock her in. Daisy heard the door swish shut, and didn't try to break free. She was stuck… with a Nazi. A Nazi in control of World Security.

"Daisy Stark…" Pierce began, pacing around the young woman. Daisy's heart continued to beat against her, but she didn't feel half as scared as her body did. When she looked at this man, this monster, it was with anger, not terror. "Do you know what your father used to say when unveiling weapons of mass destruction?"

She hadn't known her dad for long before he stopped doing that, but Daisy knew. Of course she knew. "I think the best weapon is the one you only have to fire once."

"That's exactly what Project Insight is- the weapon that only needs to be fired once. Not only will people be too scared to fight back, but all those with the inclination towards sedition will be gone. 'The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.'"

The scary thing was that Daisy knew he was right. No one would fight back against Hydra because the average man did want to be safe, and Insight was specifically designed to target all those who weren't average, who would fight back. "H.L. Mencken."

"You know the quote," Pierce smiled, causing chills to grow up Daisy's spine. "I always knew you were bright, and yet you never cease to amaze me."

"I wrote an AP essay on it," Daisy answered simply, realizing she was no longer afraid. Her heart, which had been ever present in her chest, was back to normal. Pierce had just given Daisy what she needed, courage, because she was not one of those 'average men' and she would take freedom over safety any day. "And I wrote about Nazi Germany, and how Captain America never thought of his safety, only freedom."

Pierce scowled at her words, "I thought you would see it my way. You understand that S.H.I.E.L.D hides so much from this world, or else you would never have started reading classified files."

"There's a big difference between reading classified files, and killing thousands of people, including everyone I know and love."

Daisy had blatantly rejected his offer of world domination, but Pierce seemed undeterred. "They don't have to die Daisy, not if you help me. You could make them all see that Hydra is what this world needs. We could bring peace to this world, together."

The words were tempting, and yet the offer was not. "Sorry Palpatine, but if fear is what you call peace, I want none of it," Daisy decided, pulling her gun fast. Pierce looked at her surprised, probably wondering why it had taken so long for Daisy to bring it out.

"You don't have the balls."

Part of Daisy wanted to make a snide remark about how she didn't need balls, but it got stuck in her throat. He was right; she couldn't shoot him. Natasha had spent hours teaching Daisy how to shoot straight, but she'd never taught Daisy how to shoot. "Nope," Daisy agreed, shooting the door handle, and dashing from the room.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

If anyone found Daisy Stark running out of the Triskelion odd, Daisy didn't notice. She was too busy trying t escape. Pierce could not have been working alone, which surely meant we had some trigger happy lackeys. She needed to get away and call her dad. The Avengers wore much more qualified to fight Hydra than a junior agent. Daisy just needed to survive long enough to tell him.

"Daisy!"

She slid to a stop as Steve called her name. _My Dad's not the only Avenger I know._

"Daisy what's…"

Before Steve could finish his sentence, Daisy pushed him back towards his motorcycle and climbed on. "Drive, we need to get to the airport."

"Daisy. What…"

"Now!"

Steve didn't fight her anymore, but kicked the motorcycle into high gear and sped off. Finally sensing the urgency, Steve weaved in and out of traffic, seeding all the way.

"It's Pierce," Daisy began, realizing he was driving like a madman but didn't have an explanation for why. "He's Hyd…"

Bang! Daisy broke off as a shot rang out, popping their front tire. The motorcycle flipped, sending Daisy and Steve flying. Steve landed on his side, S.H.I.E.L.D blocking his fall. Daisy has no such protection. Her leg got caught on the bike, and blood gushed from scrapes all over her body. She didn't have time to feel the pain, though, because the shooter stalked through traffic shooting again.

Daisy pulled her gun, this time daring to shoot. The masked figure turned towards her, deflecting her bullets with his metal arm. Most of his face was covered, but his eyes bore into her soul, and then he began to shoot again- in the other direction of Daisy.

Steve blocked the bullets with his S.H.I.E.L.D, trying to get towards Daisy before their attacker. It seemed like he would kill Steve, but he wanted Daisy. _Pierce just can't take no for an answer, can he?"_

Daisy tried to free herself from the wreckage, but the metal had warped around her into a mess. She'd be better trying to drag the destroyed bike as she ran than free herself from it. So, she tried just that, pushing herself up and dragging the bike with her. She managed to get a few feet, as Steve threw himself at their attacker, but the metal-armed man noticed, and turned his gun on Daisy, shooting her in the right shoulder.

She fell, unable to avoid the shooting pain. This wasn't the first time she'd been shot, and it surely wouldn't be the last. Natasha could act how she wanted; Daisy knew the truth. You never get used to the pain of being shot.

Steve attacked the man with a new ferocity, but the metal-armed-man kept up. No one should have been able to fight Steve, not unless… "He's enhanced Steve!"

Cap had probably already figured that out, but Daisy had to tell him anyways. She tried rising to her feet again, but the pain was unbearable. Between her leg and her shoulder Daisy wasn't going anywhere. She just needed to stem her bleeding until help came.

 _Help!_ Daisy had just been lying there without even considering that her phone was still tight against her pocket. She managed it out, and pressed 2.

"Hey Daisy what's…"

"Dad! I need help…" Daisy didn't even know what to say. She'd called her dad but he was all the way in New York. Even with his suit by the time he got there… "Please help. I love you."

She didn't wait to hear his panicked voice. He would come, but too late. She needed to call Nat, who wasn't four states away. Her hands shook as she tried to dial the number, but it just came up busy. "Damn it!" Her dad had probably called Nat, and so now the woman couldn't answer her own call.

Daisy put her phone aside, and attempted to aim her gun at the attacker. Hopefully Steve had enough of his attention that he wouldn't just knock them aside. But Daisy's hands were shaking, whether with fear or shock it didn't matter. She couldn't distinguish Steve's hand from their attacker's, and the world around her blurred.

Daisy was losing a lot of blood, and she knew it. Letting her gun drop, Daisy just tried to apply pressure, hang on. The sound of sirens rang out, help was coming, she only had to hang on.

Steve and his attacker were a blur of red, white, blue and black. Steve was losing though, and it appeared that their attacker had gotten control of his shield Daisy tried to follow them, but the last thing she noticed before falling into the gentle darkness of unconsciousness was Steve being beat upon by his own shield.

AN: Short, I know, but really I hate this chapter and I hate writing fight scenes so forgive me. More drama tomorrow.


	9. Chapter 9

Don't shoot me!

* * *

Chapter 9

When Daisy awoke, she was first aware of the pain in her chest, and then the cold shackles around her wrists and head. She was propped up on some sort of thing facing a blank screen. Her attacker was nowhere in sight, but before her stood Pierce.

"Captain Rodgers is alright, if that's what you're wondering," he assured her, smiling as if somehow that could make everything better. "The Winter Soldier did not wish to hurt him, only to retrieve you. Hydra never wants to kill. We are not monsters. Yes, we will go to extremes to achieve our ends, but your father built a supersuit to escape a cave. Surely you know about extremes."

At the mention of her father, Daisy strained against her cuffs, only to feel pain shooting down her body from where she'd been shot. "Well at least my family has always fought the Nazis."

"Is that why you're so reluctant to help our just cause? Because you associate us too much with modern society's embodiment of evil, the Nazi Party? If that be the case let me assure you that Hydra existed long before Hitler, and survived long after."

Daisy had never heard of pre-Nazi Hydra, but she didn't doubt it. History was full of groups there sewing evil deeds. "I will never agree with you about killing thousands of people just to maintain power! Kill me now, because I will never comply."

Pierce sighed, and then pressed a remote. The screen in front of Daisy burst to life, with images of the Hydra S.H.I.E.L.D and dozens of other things. "I didn't want to do this Daisy, I really didn't, but we need you. The Avengers are the greatest threat to our order, and you are the only one who can stop them. So you will comply, and compliance will be rewarded."

* * *

It didn't even take Tony an hour to get to D.C., but by the time he arrived it was too late. Daisy was gone, taken by some masked man with a metal arm. And someone had let her get away.

They'd sparred many times in Avengers Training, but when Tony attacked Steve he didn't care the man was already injured. All his strength, all his power was directed right at his teammate. "You were there! You should have protected her!"

The worst bit, and the bit that made it so Tony just stopped attacking Steve, was that the supersoldier didn't even fight back. He just stared at the ground and faced the truth, "I know. I should have protected her and I didn't."

"Damn right you didn't!" Tony yelled, but in his heart he knew it wasn't true. Daisy's stupid boyfriend wasn't responsible for her safety, her father was. He was the one who'd let Daisy down. He was the one who should have been there for Daisy. She'd gotten hurt in S.H.I.E.L.D before, and he hadn't stopped her from continuing. He should never have let her get involved. He should never have let her have so much freedom at such a young age. It was all his fault. Whatever Daisy was enduring was his fault.

"Look Tony," Natasha snapped, standing between the two men who looked ready to kill each other outside a S.H.I.E.L.D facility. "I know you're worried, but Daisy is alive. The man who did this, they call him the Winter Soldier. He always shoots to kill when he means to kill. I have a scar to prove it. He wanted Daisy alive, which means she will remain alive. Whatever he wants, it is not her death."

* * *

Daisy tried to blink away the confusion, but her eyes had been propped open by some horrific wires. Everything she was being told made so much sense, and yet Daisy refused to believe it. _I am Daisy Stark. My father is Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. I am an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. I am not Hydra. I will not comply._

"Come on Daisy, you know it's so much easier just to give in. Your compliance will be rewarded. You can go home."

* * *

"When I get my metal hands on this Winter Soldier I'm going to crush the life out of him," Tony growled, not coming out of his suit to pace. Daisy was missing. Daisy had been taken. Daisy had been shot and kidnapped by a known assassin.

Natasha shook her head though, remaining calm despite being terrified for her little sister (because what else could Daisy be to her?) "You'll never find him. He's a ghost, a man of legend. He's been around for decades, never aging, never dying, never revealed. He's responsible for dozens of assassinations… he's responsible for your parent's deaths."

"My parents died in a car accident."

Perhaps it wasn't good to shatter any more of Tony at that moment, but Natasha wasn't about to keep his ignorance intact, not when the truth might help them find Daisy. "That's what S.H.I.E.L.D let the world, and consequently you, believe. But it was planned. Your father called Agent Carter, told her he'd learned a secret that made it so they needed to meet immediately. Howard and Maria never made it to the meeting to tell Carter the secret."

While Tony cursed, Clint, whom Nat had called as soon as Tony called her, asked his former partner. "When he shot you, you told me this Winter Soldier was an assassin,"

"But who does he work for then?" Natasha finished for him. "No idea."

* * *

Daisy rubbed her wrists. They were swollen and bloody from the days of struggling against her chains and she let out a little laugh. She'd struggled? Why would she have struggled? That was just silly.

"Do you know who you work for Daisy?"

"Of course," she replied simply, looking up at her superior and nodding. "I work for Hydra."

* * *

They'd moved inside, and Tony smashed his hand against the table. "But why Daisy? Why not Steve or one of us? Whoever this is what did they want with her? She'd just a kid."

"But she's your kid."

* * *

"The Avengers trust you," Daisy's superior reminded her, and Daisy nodded. Of course the Avengers trusted her. She was their family, and they hers. That was why she had to do what she had to do. When family misbehaves, you have to punish them.

"They will never suspect what I intend to do. They are blinded by love, as all monsters are," Daisy answered, fiddling with her hair as she'd always done while bored in school.

* * *

"So the real question is what now?" Steve asked of his fellow Avengers, avoiding Tony's steely eyes. "I mean how are we going to get her back?"

Tony looked at Steve, really looked at him, and pitied him. He was a man out of time, never quite sure of the world around him, always afraid it might change yet again. Still, there was one thing that couldn't possibly have changed since 1942- a father's devotion to his daughter. "I find the son of a bitch and kill him, and whoever he works for."

* * *

"And you know what to do now Daisy?" Her superior asked, pencil ready to check off the last box. It had been a long conversion, far longer than the superior's own, but in the end Daisy was ready.

"Yes I know what to do now. Now I will kill the Avengers."


	10. Chapter 10

No time to edit so if there is a problem let me know. I hope you all continue through this rough ride with me, because I know it's pretty different from the original story, but I think it's interesting. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 10

"Dad?" Daisy's voice rung over the phone, and she received silence in return. "Dad are you there?"

"Daisy," her father finally answered, sighing in relief. She was okay. She was fine. "Daisy where are you?"

She looked around the restaurant, trying to find some sort of answer. There was nothing though, and the kind woman who'd lent Daisy a phone had stepped off to the side, unable to be asked.

"I don't know, just track it," she finally answered, biting her lip. "I just… I just need you to come and pick me up."

Tony felt sad that Daisy even felt she had to say that. "I'm on my way. Just don't leave, okay? Are you hurt? How is your shoulder?"

Daisy reached up to rub the wound. It hurt like hell, but she didn't mind. Pain was just a part of the job. She had to be hurt so she could comply, but her dad couldn't know that. He wasn't allowed to know about her compliance. "I mean I haven't bled out yet. Is Steve okay?"

"Yeah honey, he's fine," Tony assured her as J.A.R.V.I.S pinged up her location. He'd been flying around searching even before Daisy called, and so, with her location in mind, hurled himself towards her. She was only a few minutes away; they hadn't even taken her out of D.C. "He's worried about you, we all were."

Daisy felt bad that her father had been upset; she hated hurting those she loved. Still, it had been in their best interest, it had been in the world's best interest. "I'm okay dad, I promise. I just want to go home."

Tony just wanted to take her home as well, but they couldn't just rush back to Malibu. They needed to find whoever it was that took her, and so Daisy would have to explain what happened. Daisy would have to be debriefed by her stupid bosses at S.H.I.E.L.D before she could even go home. "I know you do honey, and you can soon."

He made it to her soon after, and pulled her in a hug that only ended when Tony realized she was bleeding again. He helped hold down on it until Natasha pulled up with an actual car and drove them towards the S.H.I.E.L.D facility. There they stitched Daisy up, pulled out the bullet that had been steadily wreaking havoc in her shoulder for a week, and then waited for the anesthesia to wear off.

When Daisy blinked awake, she was aware of her father, Steve, and Fury sitting by her side, talking quietly. They didn't appear to notice that she'd awoken, and Daisy realized how easily she could kill them all at that very moment. Fury had a gun clipped to his belt, right within Daisy's reach. She'd take her dad out before he could get the suit on, then Steve whose shield was nowhere in sight. Fury would be easy to kill then, but she didn't even need to. He wasn't an Avenger.

But she'd need to kill him or he'd stop her from going after the others. The others would know she was coming though, and so Daisy didn't reach for Fury's gun. She needed to wait until all the Avengers were within her grasp.

"Dad?" she whispered weakly, attempting to reach out and grab his hand. "Am I at S.H.I.E.L.D?"

Tony stopped speaking mid sentence and moved to grab her hand. "Yeah, at the Triskelion."

Daisy nodded, attempting to rub the confusion from her eyes when they set upon Steve. "You're okay?"

"Of course," Steve promised, coming over to grab her other hand. "Daisy I'm so sorry. It's all my fault."

She tried to shake her head, but the nausea it brought upon stopped her quickly. Pushing it down, she managed to speak, trying to keep the pain from her voice. "It's not your fault Steve. It's mine. If you'd been hurt…" Daisy couldn't have lived with Steve just dying because he tried to protect her from the Winter Soldier. He was supposed to die to save the world from the Avengers. She was supposed to kill him; she'd have been devastated if he had died because of her.

"You say it's your fault," Fury finally spoke up, eying her wearily. Daisy felt a chill on the back of her neck when his eye locked on her. He knew. She didn't know how he knew but Fury knew. Somehow he knew of her compliance. "Why were they after you?"

Daisy looked towards her dad. He'd be devastated to know she'd been kidnapped again because of him, but she had to tell the truth. She hated causing him pain, but she couldn't change the reality of it. "You. They were planning on using me to kill you. I mean all the Avengers but… but it has to start with you."

Tony's nails dug into his hand at her words, but Steve was the one who growled, "You were bait? They chained you in a warehouse for a week as bait?"

Daisy wasn't surprised they'd figured out where she'd been held. She only hoped that all traces of Hydra's presence had been whipped out. They had to be kept a secret or everyone would set out trying to destroy the evil Nazis who wanted to take over the world. Daisy wanted to kill them herself, but that would not be considered compliance.

"And do you know who it was?"

Of course she did. "No. The guy who took me left and then I never saw the others, only heard them a little."

"How did you escape?"

Escape. Daisy hadn't escaped. Daisy was still their prisoner. "I don't think they knew, that I was trained I mean. I worked my way out of the binders and then ran. There was no one guarding me at all."

It seemed odd to everyone that they could not know Daisy was an agent when the Winter Soldier attacked her at the Triskelion, but Fury was the only one who thought about it. Tony and Steve were just glad their Daisy was safe.

Fury wasn't so sure she was. "It's S.H.I.E.L.D protocol for any agent to speak with one of our psychiatrists after a traumatic ordeal. I set you up with Dr. Andrew Garner for tomorrow. Once you've spoken to him we can discuss you going back to work."

"She's not going back to work! She's going home before they come after her again!" Tony objected.

Daisy gave him that look, and spoke much like the 20-year-old girl she was. "Dad."

"No whining. She wants a leave from duty. After all the shit she's endured working for you I think she's entitled to one."

Fury looked between father and daughter before finally nodding. "Yes, for someone not on active duty Daisy has gotten herself into lots of trouble. Still, talk to Doctor Garner before going home. It would serve you well."

It wasn't an offer, but an order and Daisy would comply.

Daisy knew she could easily have liked Doctor Garner had she let herself. He offered her a bright smile as they sat down, and waited for Daisy to actually meet his eyes before speaking.

"My ex-wife always had that same look in her eyes when she used to come home."

Daisy looked at him in surprise. His ex-wife? What did she have to do with it? Daisy didn't think she looked like a disgruntled ex wife so… "Is she an agent?"

Doctor Garner nodded. "She used to be. Sometimes the field kills something in you, and you have to take a step back.

Daisy knew what he was implying, and she didn't like it. While it was likely she wouldn't be returning to S.H.I.E.L.D after her mission, Daisy knew she was cut out to be a top Field Agent. That was what she wanted. "I'm not broken Doctor Garner. I'm perfectly fine with what happened."

"Oh I'm sure you're used to it. After all, this is the third time you've been kidnapped." Daisy was about to say second, when she suddenly remembered Delaney. Damn. She hadn't thought about her former-roommate turned psycho supervillain in well over a year. Not since she'd left the Academy for sure.

"And the first time it happened you were only 15. That must have been rough." Daisy just shrugged. It really hadn't bothered her as much as it did her dad… though being locked in that prototype suit may have something to do with her fear of the dark…

Doctor Garner continued, despite Daisy no longer being able to meet his eyes. She'd never quite realized how much danger she'd been in because of her dad… or how much it bothered her. Even when she found her family she certainly didn't find the normal life she so desperately longed for.

"Daisy, why did you join S.H.I.E.L.D? Was it so you could defend yourself against all those who'd attack you?"

She looked up at him, anger brimming in his eyes. "I didn't need S.H.I.E.L.D to protect me."

"Of course you didn't," Doctor Garner's voice was still nonchalant, but his eyes dug into her. Suddenly Daisy wondered if perhaps this was about more than her most recent kidnapping. If it was about her future with S.H.I.E.L.D altogether. "But did you join S.H.I.E.L.D wanting to protect yourself after seeing how Agent Romanoff fought?"

Daisy remembered her first thoughts on the Black Widow. She'd sure as Hell been impressed… and soon after she'd joined S.H.I.E.L.D. But it wasn't about being safe. No. "My dad's bodyguard had already taught me how to fight. I joined S.H.I.E.L.D so I could fight for someone besides myself!"

"So you want to help people, save people?" Doctor Garner asked, and Daisy sunk deeper into the couch with a nod that made her look more like a surly teenager than competent agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. "You want to be a hero?"

"Doesn't everyone?"

Doctor Garner shrugged, but looked pleased. "You save lives every day when you crack encryptions or track targets. Dozens of agents and even more civilians owe you their lives. Yet you've applied to be assigned to a field team a dozen times in the past 6 months alone. Why aren't you content?"

"Because there's a hole in me I just can't fill! Not with S.H.I.E.L.D! Not with Steve! Not with my Dad! There's just a hole and nothing is ever gonna change that!"

Until the words burst from her lips, catalyzed by stress, brainwashing, and a lack of sleep, Daisy didn't even realize it was true, but it was. For as long as Daisy could remember there was this hole waiting to be filled by something. For fifteen years she assumed it was family, but she'd had a family for years. She had a dad, and a mom, and the Avengers, and Hell now she was going to have a sibling! Family had not filled the hole. And then she thought being part of S.H.I.E.L.D would, that being a hero would, but it just didn't. The whole only seemed to grow, and what she so desperately wanted in S.H.I.E.L.D would never be found.

Daisy, angered by her own outburst, walked out of the room, and Doctor Garner didn't even try to stop her. He'd gotten the answers to Fury's questions. Now all he had to do was report it.

"Well?" the Director asked, staring at Doctor Garner with his good eye. He'd always liked the man, saw him as more than just Agent May's husband. In a way the divorce had been good for Garner's relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D, if not for the two people involved. "Was I right?"

"There's definitely something wrong with Agent Stark yes," Doctor Garner confirmed, looking out of Fury's window. Daisy was standing in the parking lot, kissing Captain America as if she intended to suffocate him. It was amusing to see, and only made Andrew feel worse for the girl.

He turned back to Fury, all business again. "I don't think you have to worry about it affecting her ability to perform her duties though. Something tells me she doesn't expect to come back from this leave of absence, and what we discussed today will only make her want to leave more."

"And what did you and she discuss, Doctor Garner?"

Andrew looked at his old friend and smiled, "That's between Daisy and I Nick, you know that. I'll say this about her though- she's stronger than I am. I think I know why she and Romanoff get along so well, they have bigger balls than the rest of us. It would take them just to get out of bed in the morning."


	11. Chapter 11

Thank you all for sticking with me. I know it's a bit confusing at the moment, but that's the point. Daisy's own thoughts don't make sense; brainwashing will do that to a person.

* * *

Chapter 11

For Daisy, moving into the Avengers tower with Pepper and her dad was easy. She'd missed living at home so much, and she'd missed her family. Pepper's maternal instincts were at an all time high with the pregnancy, making it even easier for her to steal all of Daisy's heart. She'd missed those she loved so much, and nothing was better than spending time with them.

The hard bit was stopping herself from killing her father. Every time they were laughing and celebrating their easy comradely, she could see just how easy it would be to take him out. But the timing was just not right. If she acted rashly and killed her father the other Avengers would be suspicious. She needed to find a way to get them all together, but that was going to be difficult considering Thor hadn't been on earth in months. The only thing that would bring all the Avengers to her doorstep was probably a funeral, but if she killed someone they would know and basically the whole cycle repeated in her head.

So all the while she loved and hung out with her family, secretly plotting her father's death. And, much to her credit, it only crossed Daisy's mind once or twice that she probably belonged in a Shakespearean tragedy.

When her solution finally came to mind, she felt like an idiot. She'd been forgetting that she had a lot of friends who'd killed a lot of people in their lives. All she needed was some advice on how to do it, and when Natasha showed up, Daisy knew exactly what to ask.

"Nat, have you ever killed someone and made it look like an accident."

They'd never talked about her past or her violent work before, and that was why Natasha didn't suspect a thing. It was only natural that Daisy be thinking about horrible murders while on temporary trauma leave. The girl had probably been dreaming about how the Winter Soldier could have succeeded with far less trouble had he used tact instead of force. She was probably scared, which was why Natasha gave the truth.

"Yes, but it's surprisingly hard to do. Enhanced can often do it, snap a neck, leave to look like they fell, but it takes a lot of force to snap a neck, and that kind of force leaves I mark. Most poisons can be traced these days, and even if they can't everyone always suspects something when someone seemingly healthy has a heart attack. I think the best way would be to stage a car accident, but it's hard to plan those precisely enough to actually guarantee the kill. And that requires the victim to trust you enough to get in a car with them…"

"Thank you," Daisy nodded, continuing to paint her nails as if murder was normal girl talk. (And hey, for them it kind of was.)

Natasha nodded, but found herself unable to drop it like she would with anyone else. This was Daisy. The stupid teenager who she'd convinced to join S.H.I.E.L.D, and then put in danger countless times because of it. She cared about Daisy. Hell, Daisy was probably one of the few people Natasha would let herself care about, simply because the girl needed as many people caring for her a she could get.

"Daisy, you realize no one on this planet is ever safe, right? People die in car accidents every day. College students go to a party and end up overdosing. Horrible things happen to people no matter who they are."

Daisy looked at the woman, trying to get a read on her, and failing epically. Maybe Clint could read the warm-hearted, but tough as steel woman, but Daisy couldn't. "I know that. Why?"

Natasha felt a bit silly for bringing it up, and just shrugged, "I guess I'd just hate to see you resenting your old man for everything."

"You don't have to worry Nat. I love my dad. I mean of course I'm going to kill him, but I love him."

Natasha laughed at what she (and any rational person) considered a joke. "Tell me when and where Daisy, and I'll help you. You know he's been talking about making Avengers uniforms. As if we even ever get together as the Avengers. And even if we did we all have our own uniforms. We do not need matching ones."

Well her dad was certainly never going to change his look, and so Daisy tried to imagine all the Avengers in various red and gold suits. The image was just wrong. The Hulk would look like he belonged on the cover of a Christmas card. "Maybe not matching suits, but a little "A" patch on the shoulders might be cool."

"So long as it's not scarlet and on my breast I'm good."

Daisy and Natasha spent the night joking together, and in the morning the girl was still half asleep when she answered the door and found Steve there.

She suddenly blushed bright red. The last time Daisy had seen Steve she'd literally attempted to suffocate him with a kiss. She'd been desperate to feel something after recognizing the hole within her, and then Steve had been there and then she was kissing him and then trying to kill him and…

And then her dad has shown up, looking ready to murder Steve as Daisy got into the car. She hadn't seen or spoken to Steve in the week since, and suddenly they were face to face. They were face to face and Daisy had neither brushed her hair or put on a bra yet…

"Hi."

"Hi Daisy."

Steve stood awkwardly in the doorway, before Daisy suddenly remembered she was supposed to be letting him in. She moved to the side, but Steve continued to linger. Daisy finally managed a smile, "My dad's out, but Pepper is in her room sleeping. So long as my dad hasn't programmed J.A.R.V.I.S to call him should we be seen together you're fine."

"Mr. Stark did ask me to alert him should Captain Rodgers come around while he was not home," the AI chimed. "However the boyfriend override you wrote has made it so I have not yet made the call."

Daisy laughed to herself. She'd been 15 and expecting to have her first boyfriend soon when she added that little bit into J.A.R.V.I.S's code. Well, it had come in handy with Daisy's first boyfriend… just five years late.

"Come in, want some breakfast? Or coffee? I could really use some coffee."

Daisy strolled into the kitchen, and Steve followed, thinking of all the mornings of the past few months they'd done the same thing. "It's been weird you know, not driving you to the Triskelion every day. I miss it…"

Daisy missed it too, but it was probably for the better. Hadn't Daisy said that faking death by car accident could be difficult? Steve had superpowers, he might just have survived the crash Daisy surely would have planned had they ridden together. "I miss you too. I don't miss going up and down those stairs to the laundry room though."

Steve chuckled, "You always were welcome to use my machines."

There was something about the way he said it that broke Daisy's heart. Somehow he knew they were never going back to those days. And he didn't even know she had to kill him. "Yeah, well, I have certain articles of clothing I wouldn't want to have in my boyfriend's machine." Steve blushed bright red, and looked down to where Daisy's breasts sagged without a bra. "Especially my 'my boyfriend's a superhero' shirt."

Steve laughed, the awkwardness dissipating. They stood in a gentle silence for a few moments before Natasha walked in, decked out in her tactical gear. "I hate to break you two lovebirds apart, but Steve and I have a plane to Trinidad to catch."

Natasha had gotten less sleep than Daisy, the girl knew it, and yet the Black Widow looked perfect and deadly as ever. "Be careful you two. Don't let him get you killed."

"I'll take good care of him," Natasha replied, giving Daisy a quick hug before heading out. Steve went to follow, but paused. Finally he moved back towards Daisy, and cupped her face in his hand. The kiss was nothing like their last, deadly one, but sent shivers down Daisy's spine. It was like plunging into a sauna. Her body tensed, and then suddenly the heat spread, encompassing her every thought.

"Come home soon Daisy," Steve finally whispered, his breathing heavy when they finally broke apart. "I don't want to let go of the girl I love again."

Daisy blinked mindlessly, but finally settled on a soft smile. "You won't have to. I'm never going to leave you Steve, you're going to have to leave me. I love you far too much to ever go away. You'll have to die to be rid of me."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Daisy needed a funeral, and so she settled on the pecan pie. Pepper didn't eat it, but her father was sure to down the whole thing. And then the poison would stop his heart, always so weak even with the arcreactor.

She'd gotten the idea from Natasha of course. The assassin had said that the problem with poison was that those with perfectly healthy hearts didn't just have random heart attacks. But those with shrapnel desperately creeping towards their hearts and a magnet of sorts holding it back do tend to randomly have heart attacks. Especially when they occupy their time with stressful things, like crime fighting.

And so Daisy added the poison while watching the Avengers float passing beneath her window with the rest of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The poison hadn't been hard to come by, not once she contacted her handler and told her the plan. It was certainly an illegal drug to have, but the illegality of having the poison was most certainly overshadowed by the illegality of murder.

When the Stark family sat around the dinner table that Thanksgiving, they all had a lot to be grateful for. Of course they weren't the type of family to actually say aloud all those things they were grateful for, but they knew them in their hearts. They were grateful to spend this first Thanksgiving with Pepper legally a part of the family. They were grateful for the life growing within her, a little girl if a mother's instincts were right. They were grateful for one more Thanksgiving with everyone alive. Pepper and Tony were grateful Daisy had gotten away from her kidnappers. Daisy was grateful that the first step of her mission was almost complete.

They were so grateful, no one objected when Tony suddenly declared they had to start with dessert as it was an old Stark family tradition he'd somehow forgotten about for five years. Daisy and Pepper made their way towards the chocolate cream, smoothing their halves with copious amounts of whipped cream. Tony gulped up his pecan pie, even managing to compliment Daisy's baking before clutching his chest and letting the fork clatter to the floor.

Daisy screamed watching her father dying before her, tears welling up within her. She didn't want to lose her dad. She couldn't lose her dad. Iron Man had to die.

"It seems Mr. Stark has gone into cardiac arrest," J.A.R.V.I.S chimed out, far too casually for the liking of the Stark women. Daisy was hysterical by her father's side, clutching his hand as her handiwork made its way through his system, shutting everything down. She'd picked a painless poison, the kind that shuts off the pain centers first. She couldn't bare to see her father die, never mind in agony.

"Daddy," she whispered, his eyes recognizing her presence. She could barely even see him through her own tears, but Daisy didn't let go. She'd never let go of her father. "I love you."

If Daisy's heart wasn't already broken, watching her father in his final moment nod would have done the trick. His grip on her hand disappeared, and his eyes, while still staring right at her, saw nothing. Daisy couldn't control herself. She sobbed over him, hugging him in that moment to make up with 20 years worth of hugs they should have had. She hugged him to make up with all the hugs they should have had in the future had he not had to die. Daisy kissed his lips, wishing the poison would transfer to her so she didn't have to feel so terrible. Her dad was dead. He wasn't just missing or in danger this time. He was dead.

Tony jerked up, panting, and then collapsed back to the floor. Daisy let out whole different kind of scream, reaching to feel his pulse. His heart was beating again, weakly, but beating. Suddenly Daisy felt a whole different kind of horrible. She had failed. She had not complied. She'd gotten her wish and her father had lived, and everything was wrong.

The parade made it nearly impossible for an ambulance to get to them, and by the time it did Tony's heart had stopped beating twice more. Daisy held her breathe and her father's hand all the way to the hospital. Her thumb she kept gentle against his wrist, needing to feel his pulse or lack thereof, even as the monitor beeped and flat lined next to her. Each time his heart stopped pain and relief shot through Daisy, and when he was revived gratefulness and disappointment replaced it. Everything was all so wrong. Daisy didn't know how to think, how to feel, and so she just held her father's hand.

He pulled through in the end. Daisy should have known her father would be the person to add a defibrillator to his arc reactor. Each time the poison brought his heart to a stop the electricity shot up, restarting it. Eventually the poison dissipated from his blood, and the cycle stopped. Daisy had never been so happy as when her father lived that thanksgiving. She'd never felt so terrible about having not complied.

"He's going to be okay," Pepper reassure her daughter (because damn it, Daisy was as much her daughter as the new life growing within her). "His heart hasn't stopped in two hours. He'll be okay Daisy."

She nodded, rubbing her red eyes. There were no more tears staining her hands, she'd cried herself out. Surely there would be more tears when her handler finally caught up to her. She had not complied after all.

"He's going to be okay," Pepper whispered again, trying to convince herself. She'd almost lost Tony again. How many times had she almost lost Tony?

When the other Avengers arrived, Daisy was sitting on the windowsill, looking out. The people of the city went about their lives, celebrating the holiday, lining up outside stores for Black Friday sales. It would have been a very black Friday for the Starks should Tony have died. Daisy didn't like to think about that.

"Hey kid, how you holding up?" Clint asked, the first one to dare speaking. Daisy turned, looking around. Almost all her targets were there and yet… yet she didn't feel like complying. She didn't want them to die. They had to, but she couldn't gather the strength to stand, never mind kill four superheroes.

Daisy didn't answer Clint's question, and none of the others, not even Steve pushed her further. Steve simply moved next to her, wrapping his arm around her so Daisy could bury her head in his chest. Never one to linger where death was, Natasha decided to search out a nurse, get some answers.

"He had a heart attack, plain and simple. Hearts aren't meant to run on batteries you know, especially not while saving the world. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. But it was just a heart attack."

The nurse's words sent a chill down Natasha's spine that didn't belong there. No. No. She refused to believe it. It had to be a coincidence.

Fury picked up after the first ring, and Agent Romanoff managed to spit the words out, even if they left a bitter taste in her mouth. "You need to send a crew to analyze everything Tony was eating for poison. It won't be obvious, but look for anything out of place, even if it looks like it's probably nothing."

"There was no one in that building but the Starks, Romanoff," Fury reminded his best agent, all the while sending out the message for a team to do just that. "What do you expect to find?"

Natasha didn't want to say it, but she did. "I expect you'll find proof that Daisy just poisoned her father."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Tony was home before the lab technicians got back to Natasha. They'd found an elevated level of some chemical Natasha couldn't pronounce, but it was certainly not something that belonged in Pecan Pie. If they hadn't been looking Daisy would have surely gotten away with it, but Nat was. Daisy hadn't had the same drive towards S.H.I.E.L.D since she was taken, and that meant she had to be focusing on something else. Now the Black Widow hadn't expected that something else to be killing her father, but the facts were the facts.

The facts didn't make sense though. Natasha knew Daisy loved her father. Everyone knew that. So why would she want to see him dead?

"She always wanted to be a superhero," Clint finally sighed once Natasha called him in. Steve and Tony were both too attached to Daisy to believe it. Clint and Natasha cared about her enough to do something. "You don't think she's doing this out of jealousy right? Hoping that once her dad is dead she can take his suit?"

"She couldn't even use the suit if he was dead. Tony has protocols against her accessing it. He never wanted her to be in the same kind of danger as him."

Natasha chuckled at the dry irony. He didn't want Daisy to be in danger because of him. He never expected to be in danger because of Daisy. "It doesn't make sense to me. It's like… it's like something happened to her Clint. She came back different."

He was going to say that traumatic events could do that to a person, but not to Daisy. She'd undergone so many traumatic events and only come out stronger. Something else had to be responsible… or someone else. "Did you think it was odd, that they knew she'd be at the Triskelion and yet somehow didn't know she was a trained agent?"

"Yes," Natasha nodded, looking at Clint . "The Winter Soldier… he's the top of the line. No one hiring him is short on cash or intelligence. They had to know she'd be able to escape… They let her go."

"Yes. Which means they wanted her out here… wanted her out here to kill her father. Now I can only think of one way they'd be able to convince her to do that, and it's in S.H.I.E.L.D possession."

"The Mind Stone?" Natasha remembered what Loki did to Clint better than she liked to admit. It had made him a completely different person, with completely different goals. That sounded exactly like Daisy. "You think she's been brainwashed?"

Clint shrugged, "It's just a theory. Hell I'm probably being an idiot. Good agents turn. Family turns. Maybe I'm just trying to give her an excuse that isn't there, but I just can't believe Daisy would do this."

Natasha didn't believe it either, but then again, she didn't want to believe it either. "It doesn't matter why she's doing it. Daisy wants to kill Tony, and we need to stop her before she succeeds. And we need to catch her in the act, or her father will never believe it."

"And then we try to get the real Daisy back," Clint agreed hoping Natasha wouldn't dare to say the words neither of them wanted to hear.

But Natasha dared to do everything, "If that's even still possible."

After three days, Daisy couldn't hide any more. Her father was home, Pepper was with him, she needed to get out of the house. She had to face her handler.

She knew Daisy would be out, somehow. Daisy didn't want to know how she'd known, but she did. When Daisy opened her wallet to pay for a coffee and found a note, the girl knew her handler was around. Daisy hadn't seen her, but she was there.

And there was an alleyway in Hell's Kitchen, apparently. It was a reminder, of how dangerous the Avengers were. Hell's Kitchen had basically been wiped off the map by the Avengers, the Avengers whom Daisy had failed to kill. "You promised Iron Man would be dead."

"I had no idea he had a defibrillator in his chest. I failed in my compliance."

Her handler nodded, reading the script her eye presented. She was lucky enough not to have had forced compliance, or, at least she was lucky enough to know she was being forced to comply. This poor girl had no idea, and her handler wasn't going to say anything. She liked breathing, even if she hated her life.

"Will you submit yourself to disciplinary action?"

A part of Daisy screamed to answer yes, but she blinked looking at her handler. Why would she submit to pain for having failed to kill her father? She was glad her father was alive!

"Stark. Will you submit yourself to disciplinary action?"

 _Do it!_ "No."

Her handler cursed under her breath. She did not need this. Noncompliance reflected on her as much as it did this stupid girl. "Stark, will you comply?"

"No."

Her handler sighed, and knocked the girl out. Noncompliance was often so odd. They got confused and began to refuse things, but they so rarely broke free completely. They were just like Daisy, standing there saying no, but unable to actually leave. They've been made to forget how.

Reconditioning Daisy didn't take nearly the time it did the first time, but it was dark when she finally made it back home, her compliance re-cemented. She was to the point that just grabbing a knife, walking into her father's room, and killing him seemed like a good idea. But she was held back, not by fear or emotions, but by compliance. She'd been ordered to kill Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye all at once or not at all. Then of course they added that 'not at all' was not a real option, lest she wiggle her way through that loophole.

"I was just going to call you," her father called from the couch. He didn't look well, but it was better than when he had palladium poisoning his blood, one cell at a time. "But Pepper figured you needed space."

She didn't want any space; Daisy wanted to sit on her dad's lap and be the child she'd never gotten to be. But she couldn't turn back time, and she just curled up on the couch next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"For what? It's not like you poisoned me."

Daisy laughed at the irony, and her heart hurt far more than Tony's in that moment. "I did though. Don't you know that."

"Sure kid," he laughed off, as everyone else had. Each time Daisy managed to break through her compliance enough to call for help everyone just thought she was kidding. Didn't anyone realize what was happening? Didn't anyone realize Daisy was trapped in her own body, and only her subconscious knew it?

"Daisy," Tony whispered, turning his head so their eyes were barely inches apart. "I want you to know that I'm glad you're home. I hate… I hate what it took for you to be here, but I'm glad you are. We never got enough time together. I missed fifteen years, and then I finally got you and the way I lived made us miss so much more time. If I hadn't been such an egomaniac Obadiah wouldn't have wanted the company and I never would have been taken, you never would have joined S.H.I.E.L.D and… and everything would be different. Hell, if I'd been more accountable and spoken to your mother again I would have been able to raise you. I know I'm the only one responsible for this distance that's always been between us, and I'm sorry."

Daisy was sorry too. "I shouldn't have joined S.H.I.E.L.D, not when I was so young. I was a stupid kid who just wanted to prove herself…"

"You're still a kid."

The thing was that Daisy's ability to nod was probably what made her not a kid at all. Kids can never recognize how young they really are. "Yeah, I am. But I'm also more than that now. I wish I could have known you when I was a kid. I wish we had more time now."

"You have plenty time yet to get sick of me," Tony reminded her, shifting to plant a soft kiss on the top of her head. "We have the rest of our lives."

And that, was exactly why all Daisy could think of was that they had no time at all.


	14. Chapter 14

Thank you all so much for sticking with me. The follows, favorites and reviews have really kept me going in these crazy times. A word of advice to any younglings out there- don't take AP Biology unless your teacher is renowned for competence. Otherwise you may only cover 1/3rd of the topics... If any of you are the praying type, please, pray for me.

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Chapter 14

Clint and Natasha watched Daisy closely for a week, but she never did anything. The girl's mission completely left her mind as she hung around the house, bored, but in a good way. Meanwhile even Tony was getting suspicious, because Daisy hated just sitting around, and so he invited the other Avengers over for a dinner party. Maybe that would be enough to break Daisy out of her funk so that she could figure out her new life plans, whatever they would be.

Natasha was just glad she'd be able to watch Daisy from across a table rather than the apartment across the street. Granted she doubted the girl would make any move with so many witnesses, but it was still easier. At least it didn't crane her neck so much.

Daisy was thrilled when her father announced that all the Avengers, 'yes even Rodgers' would be there. A part of her feared for Steve's life once Tony saw the two of them together again, and then another part of her realized that was a ridiculous thing to fear. Steve would be fine. Daisy was going to kill him after all.

There would be no need for subtly in this one. Daisy had to be caught for her crimes, and not just because Hydra said she should be. Daisy's own innate sense of justice would call her to be punished for the death of those she loved, though the pain within her would surely be punishment enough.

The day before, Daisy went to the target range, just to get some practice in. Dad, Nat, Steve, Clint, Dad, Nat, Steve, Clint, Dad, Nat, Steve, Clint- Daisy repeated the order she had to kill them in with each round she let off into the paper target. They'd probably all be too shocked to fight, but one way or another she had to be quick. No time to fight the Avengers. They trusted her enough to come into a room with her, and she just had to take advantage of that trust.

Natasha arrived first, going right into Daisy's room to give her a smothering hug before helping the girl clip her necklace. The two women shared a secret smile when J.A.R.V.I.S announced that Captain Rodgers had arrived, and Daisy set out to greet him.

They met with a kiss, that lasted long enough for Tony to come from his room. "J.A.R.V.I.S, remind me the combined firepower of all my suits."

J.A.R.V.I.S rattled off a number comparable to a nuclear bomb, and Steve pulled away from Daisy, bright red. "I understand, sir."

Daisy actually wanted to kill her father for a moment, but since Clint hadn't arrived yet, she couldn't. Crazy how nothing could ever go in her favor, could it?

"Good then, let's sit down. Barton is just coming up the elevator and Pepper should only be a few more minutes. She's discovered the dress she wanted to wear doesn't exactly fit around the kid."

Oh good. Daisy didn't want her mother to have to see this. Pepper would be a complete trainwreck no matter what, but she'd be better not having to see it. Daisy wished she didn't have to see it, but she had to do it.

Daisy followed the others to the table, sitting herself between her dad and Steve. Natasha sat across from them, and Daisy ran over in her head exactly the movements she'd have to make to take them all out before a fight broke out. By the time Clint strolled in and took his place besides Natasha, Daisy knew exactly what she had to do.

The only thing was doing it. She reached towards her leg where the gun was holstered, but found herself stalling. Daisy couldn't bear to lose them. Daisy had to comply. She didn't want them dead. She had to kill them. It was all so confusing, and looking at them, the people she loved Daisy hesitated.

But then she heard Pepper moving towards them, and knew she did not have time. She had to do it. She had to. She had. She…

Daisy whipped the gun out, from beneath the table, firing at Natasha. The gun clicked, but nothing happened. Well, nothing besides Clint reaching across the table and stabbing a needle into her arm. The last thing Daisy noticed before the world went dark was Natasha holding the gun's clip in her hands.

"What the Hell did you do!" Tony screamed, catching Daisy as she slumped unconscious in his arms. He had absolutely no idea what just happened. Clint had come in and then… and then Daisy had tried to shoot Natasha, who'd already stolen her clip, and Clint had tranquilized Daisy and… "What did you do to my daughter?"

Natasha looked up at Tony, trying to keep her raging emotions back. She'd taken the clip the moment she'd realized Daisy had a gun under her dress, but she'd hoped she was wrong and the gun would remain hidden. She hadn't been wrong though, only about Daisy's target. Apparently she didn't just want to kill her dad, but all of the Avengers. "I stopped her from becoming a killer. Tony, you didn't have a heart attack, you were poisoned, by Daisy."

"That's insane! Daisy loves her father," Steve jumped in to defend his girlfriend, still sitting in shock. Everything had happened so quickly he could barely understand what he saw. Yet his senses told him Daisy had just tried to kill Natasha, and that was insane as well.

"Exactly," Clint answered, his voice steady and calm, while inside he shook. How could this have happened? How could this have happened to Daisy? Was it because he'd signed off on her recruitment papers? Because he'd been stupid enough to let Loki control him? "We think she's being controlled, like Loki did to me. None of us believe she would want us dead, but the evidence it hard to ignore.

Of course the evidence was hard to ignore, but Tony sure as hell wanted to. "You're wrong. She would never do that. Daisy was devastated when she thought I was going to die she… Daisy would never want that."

"And that's why we think Daisy is no longer in control," Natasha didn't know how to be comforting, especially not when she herself was so afraid for Daisy. The girl was like her stupid kid sister… her stupid kid sister who'd been brainwashed to kill her. "If we get her back to S.H.I.E.L.D we can get some answers. Please Tony, we want to help her, but you have to trust us."

Tony did trust them. Maybe not S.H.I.E.L.D itself, but he trusted his teammates. Still, the idea of letting Daisy out of his arms was worse than the idea of her killing him. "Okay, but I want to know who the Hell did this to her, and then they better start digging a grave."


	15. Chapter 15

A million and one thank yous again. I really appreciate you all sticking with me. I know it's been a rough ride. (Though no less rough than the actual show. And I'm mean to Daisy? Have you seen what they've done to her?)

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Chapter 15

When Daisy woke up, the first thing she was aware of where the cool binders around her wrists. For a moment she thought she was back in the warehouse, back to being conditioned to comply, but then she saw her dad sitting on the other side of the room, looking at her with more fear in his eyes than she knew was possible. "Dad? Dad what's going on? Where am I?"

Tony blinked. Daisy sounded so young and scared and good. How could everything he was being told be true? How could everything he'd seen for himself been true. "You're being held at a S.H.I.E.L.D facility. Daisy, you tried to kill Natasha."

"Is she okay?" Daisy asked, her heart beating. Natasha was fine right? God she couldn't stand the idea of Natasha not being fine and yet… and yet she'd been the one to pull the trigger. "Oh Dad I'm so, so sorry. I had to do it I had to."

Everyone had told him it was dangerous, but Tony moved to her side. Besides, Daisy was restrained by cuffs; there wasn't much she could do. And he needed to be near her, brushing the stray hairs from her face. "Daisy, while you were out we ran some tests. The decision making part of your brain is basically off. Someone else made the decision to kill the Avengers, right? And you were just following through?"

"I had to comply."

Comply: Daisy said the word so easily, so robotically, that Tony knew it wasn't her own. Self hatred oozed throughout him. What kind of terrible father let their daughter be kidnapped and brainwashed? What kind of asshole didn't notice for months?

"And do you know who tell you to comply?"

Of course she did. Daisy wasn't such a fool as to not know who she was working for. But telling was not complying. "Yes, but I'm not allowed to tell anyone. I can't."

Tony wanted to push, demand answers, but he didn't want to push her. He didn't want to break his daughter any more than she'd already been broken. _I'm going to kill them all. I don't care whether or not that's right, I want them all dead._

"Okay honey, that's okay. I'll… I'll be back soon, okay? Try to go back to sleep, it's the middle of the night."

Whatever drug Clint had hit her with was still very much in Daisy's system, so it wasn't hard for her to obey and drift back into the safe world of sleep.

"So she's been brainwashed to kill the Avengers and do God knows what else," Tony finally sighed, flopping down besides Pepper and the other Avengers. Pepper placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Tony just felt stupid. He should have known. Better yet he should have kept Daisy, his daughter, safe. She shouldn't have ever been in danger in the first place. They only wanted her because Daisy was his daughter, the Avengers' friend. This was all his fault. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. "Now what the Hell do we do to fix her?"

Tony looked among his friends, but found no answer. They'd stopped Daisy, or at least her compliance, but they didn't know how to fix it. She still felt the need to kill them, just as much as she felt overwhelming love for them.

"There may be a way." Fury had been sulking in the shadows, but when he spoke the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D moved towards them. "If Daisy was to forget getting taken she'd forget what they told her to do."

It sounded brilliant, and so everyone knew there had to be a catch.

"But she'd have to forget all her targets as well, or at least her emotional connection to them."

Tony was much shorter than Fury, but when he stood next to the Director no one could be white sure who was looming over whom. "What do you mean? How could she just forget us?"

"We could wipe her memories of everything that's happen since you adopted her and instead give her a fake life, the life she probably would have had should she never have found you."

"No way!" Tony bellowed, horrified that Fury could even say such a thing. Sure, the man wasn't a father but even he had to realize that just wiping Daisy's memories wasn't a good idea. Tony wasn't about to make her forget her family, everything that had happened. He wasn't going to let Daisy live on the streets with no family or future like many former foster-kids did. No way! "No. You can't just do that. You can't take my daughter away from me."

"Either I do or Daisy stays locked up forever, trying to kill you every chance she gets," Fury never got mad, but the way he emphasized the end of the sentence drove it into all of them. They didn't have any ither options. Either they locked up Daisy or they destroyed Daisy, sending her back to a life of nothing and no one.

The choice hung in the air, until Tony finally choked out an answer, "How can I even make that choice?"

"Maybe you don't have to," Steve finally spoke up, not meeting Tony's eyes. "Daisy is still herself, except for when it comes to killing us, right? Why don't you ask her what she wants? Let her make the decision."

Tony hated the idea simply because it was Steve's but it made sense. Yet was Daisy really capable of making such a big decision. Brainwashing aside Daisy was so young. She could make the wrong choice. Or she could make the right choice and leave him…

"I'll go talk to her," he finally sighed, getting up before the matter could be discussed anymore. He was her father. It was his decision up until the moment it was hers. After all, Daisy was an adult. He could only do so much for her, and even then he'd never managed to do all of that.


	16. Chapter 16

You know, I got the idea for this plot from a review, so it's only fair that I completely change it in response to numerous reviews. For more explanation, see the end review.

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Chapter 16

Daisy was still asleep when he went in, which made it easier. It gave him time to try to find the words. How do you tell someone that they've been brainwashed? How do you tell her daughter she either has to spend the rest of her life locked up, or forget everyone and everything she loved?

"Hey."

Tony hadn't even realized she was awake until Daisy spoke. She looked at peace, comfortable, despite the cuffs. Would it really be so terrible to leave her like that? Surely with time her conditioning would wear off and she could be released… Surely there were more options. "Hey honey. How are you feeling?"

"Restless," Daisy admitted, sitting up so the cuffs clacked against the bars of the bed. "It's weird. I don't want you to die, you know that right? But I just… I just have to kill you so… so I think I'm glad I'm locked up. But I hate it. I hate every second of it. I just want to go and live and…"

Her words were like 23 daggers in Tony's chest. "Daisy. Fury knows of a way that you can be free and not hurt those you love." The girl's eyes lit up, despite the conditioning in her that said this was a very bad thing. "But there's a price. We… You… You'd have to forget me Dais. We'd have to give you a new life. You'd be who you would have been, had you not found that letter."

Daisy wasn't exceptional. She, like everyone else, had spent many nights imagining what her life had been like if one thing had been different, if she'd never found that letter. It had always seemed like a simpler life, if not a better one, but she never wanted that life. She liked her life, even when it was crazy and horrible and painful. But she loved her dad. She loved Steve and Clint and Natasha. She didn't want them dead ( _but they have to die_ ). But at the same time… she couldn't just forget her life! That would hurt them more than death.

"No," Daisy declared, sitting up the best her restraints would allow. "No. There has to be another way. Call Fitzsimmons or any scientist they can find another way. Maybe… maybe just make me forget the recent stuff. That can happen can't it? I don't want to lose you, not by forgetting you, not by killing you. There has to be another way!"  
Tony was crying, but he wiped away the tear from his little girl's eyes. "You're never going to lose me Daisy. Even if you don't know you have me you still will. You're my daughter. I love you."

"I want to know I have you please, find another way. I don't care if it's risky or… just find another way. Please, Dad, please."

The look in Daisy's eye was so broken that Tony wanted to throw a chair, or everything in the room really. Daisy was right there had to be another way. He couldn't do this, not to her. He could let her go, because he loved her, but he couldn't make her have to let him go. It was just wrong so wrong.

"Find another way. Even if it means erasing the last three months, but not the last five years. Fury, I can't lose my daughter," Tony told the head of Shield as he stormed from Daisy's room. This was ridiculous. Sure, his life was always ridiculous, but this was a new level. They could not just ask him to do this. They could not just ask Daisy to do this. "If you've done this before, don't tell me you haven't only erased certain memories. I know you Fury, you will have tried."

The Director of Shield pursed his lips and looked away from the distraught father. It was true, he had only erased certain memories. All the other Tahiti patients had been wiped completely, but Coulson… Fury couldn't bring himself to lose Phil Coulson. It was wrong of him to ever think the Avengers could lose Daisy.

But there were risks. Coulson had been resurrected for months now, and they still had him under observation. They would probably be adjusting his memories for another year more before ever letting him return to duty. Fury still didn't know if it work would, not completely, or if Coulson was going to go rogue like the others and tear everything down. But Nick had taken the risk, for an Avenger.

Daisy was more of an Avenger than Phil damn it, and Fury owed it to her to try. "There may be a way… but it's risky. Really risky, and I can't tell you it will work. We could adjust her memories, make her forget getting kidnapped and everything after. But she'd need to stay under observation, constant supervision by someone who is not one of her targets… someone who could stop her if the memories were to return. Pepper would be okay, I'd suggest having Hill on hand as well, but I'd hate to have to spare her. And Daisy couldn't be an agent, not until we know for sure it's stuck."

Fury called those downsides, but they just sounded like choirs of angels to Tony. He was so thrilled by the fact that he could keep Daisy that it never even crossed his mind to be angry at Fury for not presenting this offer in the first place. In a few months, maybe a few weeks, he'd probably be angry, but in that moment Tony had his world returned to him.

"Anyone, anything. She'll hate it, being stuck at home, but… but she'd be home, and she'll be herself. Right? She'll still be Daisy."

Nick Fury nodded and went to make the proper calls. Damn it he'd probably regret this, but he didn't have any other option. It was for the best.

When Daisy woke up, she was in a hospital bed. She jerked up, expecting stabbing pain in her shoulder where the bullet cut through, but found only an old ache. Pulling her shirt off Daisy discovered that there was no fresh wound there, but a healing scar.

She wracked her brain, but nothing made sense. Okay, some things made sense, like the husband and wife passed out in chairs by her bedside, but other things… Daisy understood why she might be in a Shield hospital. She'd been attacked because…

"Pierce is Hydra!"

Her scream awoke her sleeping parents just as Daisy was climbing from the bed. Tony jumped to his feet to grab her, unsure what was going on in her head after the treatment, and the wideness of Daisy's eyes struck him. She was terrified. "Daisy, it's okay. You're safe."

"No, no! No one's safe Pierce… Pierce is Hydra!"

Tony used his larger body to sit Daisy back down, and he held her hands tight. On the bright side she wasn't trying to kill him. On the downside… well she was hysterical. "Daisy, it's been a month. You've been unconscious for a month, it's only natural for you to be confused."

 _A month?_ Her father's words stopped Daisy in her tracks. She remembered being attacked and everything going dark but… "A month? I… I don't understand." That just didn't seem right. Daisy's legs should be jelly if she'd been in a coma for a month, but she felt fine.

"When you were attacked you got shot and then hit your head," Tony told the girl, mentally hating himself for the lie, but knowing it was truly in her best interest. He'd never gotten a chance to tell his daughter lies about Santa and the Easter bunny, but he could lie to her about this to keep her in a world of fantasy. "I've been really worried."

Daisy lifted her hands to cup her head, trying to sort through the words. None of it made sense, but she didn't have time to think on it. "I'm not confused Dad, Secretary Pierce is Hydra. That's why he sent someone to attack me; he wanted me to join Hydra."

Tony once again went to brush it off as a side effect of the treatment, but then he realized it was a viable possibility. Fury had said they were going to wipe everything since Daisy was kidnapped… if she'd found out the truth before she was kidnapped. "Daisy, are you absolutely sure?"

"One hundred percent, he told me himself."

Looking at the desperation on her face, Tony realized it was true. Secretary Pierce was actually a Nazi, and he was the one who'd done this to Daisy. He was going to pay. Quickly he pulled out his phone, and sent a simple message in the Avengers Group Chat: **Daisy is awake and knows who did this. Avengers Assemble.**

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I'll admit, I was going to have Daisy's mind wiped and then the story ends with her waking up as Skye. It was really, really, really depressing, but I was doing it, because I felt that was what the story needed. Then yesterday I hinted at that, and you all, for lack of a better word, flipped shit. I've never seen so many people upset at the prospect of something, and it actually just reassured my inner feeling that something was wrong. So, I changed it. If you wanted the other plotline... I'm sorry. If you were one of the people who wanted something else, well I hope this suits you better, because it certainly does me.

I'm going to mark this story as complete, but to be honest I'm not sure it is actually done. I always planned on writing one more part, but now I need to change what I wrote completely, and I don't know if it's going to sit better as a separate story or if I'm just going to go back to updating on this. I need to write it, see it's length, see it's plot, and then I'll know. So keep a lookout and I'll no matter what make one more update on this fic to let you know what's happening.

With that being said, I'm swamped with work at the moment. I'm taking my NEWTS next week (definitely NEWTS, not AP tests), and my musical is right after them, and then I should be able to breathe. But changing this chapter is the most writing I've done in over 2 weeks, because I simply haven't had any time. As soon as I do I'll write the end/ sequel to this story, and have it posted. I'm hoping June 1st will be around when you see the next update, but I honestly don't know.

I do know that I really appreciate everyone who read this story, and I'll appreciate even more everyone who doesn't hate me for changing things last minute. I do feel like this will be better (or at least happier) in the end. Not to say there still isn't some tragedy left, because there is, but there is more hope this way. Anyway, I'm going to stop rambling and go to bed. Thank you, for everything.


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